Three ICC judges sue Trump administration over sanctions, calling them a 'financial death penalty'

Three judges of the International Criminal Court filed a lawsuit on Wednesday in a federal court in Manhattan against President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The plaintiffs, Kimberly Prost of Canada, Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda and Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini-Gansou of Benin, argue that sanctions imposed on them last year are unlawful and were designed to exert extrajudicial pressure with the aim of punishing them for past judicial decisions.

“Being subjected to such sanctions under IEEPA is tantamount to the financial death penalty.”

The 66-page complaint says the measures are unprecedented for international judges and asks the court to lift them. It also names Attorney General Todd Blanche and Bradley Smith, director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, as defendants.

Impact on daily life

The sanctions block the judges' US-based property and assets and forbid American entities from providing them with funds, goods or services. In practice, the three jurists can no longer use credit cards, access banking services or rely on platforms like Amazon and Google even in Europe. Prost and Alapini-Gansou lost their health insurance and have been unable to obtain new coverage. Alapini-Gansou now moves around The Hague only by car with a driver and limits her travels within Europe and to her home country Benin out of concern for her safety.

“The sanctions have an impact on every aspect of my daily life. It gives you a permanent feeling of fear and powerlessness.”

Nicolas Guillou, a French ICC judge also under sanctions, told Le Monde that American companies like Amazon, Airbnb and PayPal closed his accounts and banks refused payments, sending him "back to the 1990s".

The US response

A White House official said Trump lawfully exercised his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, dealing with "an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States involving the International Criminal Court, including the ICC's illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel." The official added that the administration will continue to vigorously defend the president's actions.

A State Department official declined to comment on the pending litigation but maintained that the ICC "presents a threat to our sovereignty and our national interests" and that "the Trump administration will never allow unelected foreign judges to dictate terms to the United States."

Roots of the confrontation

The Trump administration imposed sanctions on several ICC judges last year after the court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes in Gaza. Earlier, the court had opened an investigation into alleged war crimes by US troops in Afghanistan. Bossa was among the judges who in 2020 approved that investigation, while Alapini-Gansou signed the arrest warrants against the Israeli officials. Prost had green-lighted an inquiry into American personnel at secret CIA sites.

“Federal courts have always found that it is not their place to question factual or politically charged decisions about emergencies or foreign affairs made by the government.”

Aziz Huq, a law professor at the University of Chicago, told The New York Times that the judges' legal challenge faces an uphill battle, as courts traditionally defer to the executive on such national-security determinations.