Washington slams the door on the International Criminal Court over Iran

A message sent directly to The Hague

Acting Attorney General of the United States, Todd Blanche, sent a letter Monday to the president of the International Criminal Court, Judge Tomoko Akane, stating that the Department of Justice"unequivocally rejects" any claim by the Court to exercise jurisdiction over American citizens. The Department of Justice made the letter public on Thursday, a decision that immediately ratcheted up the confrontation between the Trump administration and the tribunal based in The Hague.

This move did not come out of nowhere. It fits a hard line the American executive has embraced for months, in which every multilateral institution deemed too intrusive toward American sovereignty gets told, bluntly and publicly, that it lacks authority.

Words chosen to make an impression

In his letter, Todd Blanche accuses the Court of acting "in an increasingly lawless and illegitimate manner," systematically claiming jurisdiction over countries that never consented to its authority, and failing to defer to national courts before launching its own investigations.

This word choice, unusually harsh for official diplomatic correspondence, shows the administration's determination to leave no ambiguity about its position.

A profile built for institutional confrontation

Appointed acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche embodies a generation of Department of Justice officials no longer hesitant to openly challenge international institutions historically respected even by earlier Republican administrations that were more cautious on this ground.

His letter does not merely reject the Court's jurisdiction: it questions the very motivation behind its investigations, claiming they are "driven as much by political pressure and institutional self-interest as by legal merit." That is a serious accusation, striking directly at the professional credibility of The Hague's magistrates.

A frontal challenge to the Court's impartiality

Blanche goes further, saying the Court's record raises "serious doubts about the ICC's impartiality, credibility, and legitimacy." That is an attack that goes beyond simple jurisdictional disagreement, striking at the very legitimacy of the institution as a body of international justice.

Refusal to cooperate or extradite

In concrete terms, Todd Blanche announces that the United States will cooperate with no investigation or proceeding conducted by the Court, and will never extradite or transfer American citizens to The Hague. Washington will even "actively oppose any effort by other countries" seeking to do so on its behalf.

Should an American national ever be detained under what Blanche calls the Court's "purported authority," the US government "will take all necessary measures to secure that individual's immediate release," a formulation that hints at the possibility of direct intervention to free a detained citizen.

An old legal basis, now reactivated

This position rests on the American Servicemembers' Protection Act of 2002, a law that already rejects the Court's jurisdiction over Americans and authorizes the president to use "all means necessary and appropriate" to secure the release of any American detained under a Court warrant. The law explicitly protects military personnel, government officials, and American civilians.

A presidential order that already targeted the Court's staff

This letter from Todd Blanche did not appear in isolation. It extends a sanctions order signed by Donald Trump in February 2025, aimed directly at the Court's staff. That order described the Court's conduct as an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to American national security and foreign policy, and authorized freezing assets and imposing travel restrictions on Court officials and anyone providing material assistance to investigations targeting Americans or protected allies.

Trump stated at the time that the United States "unequivocally opposes and expects our allies to oppose any ICC actions against the United States, Israel, or any other ally" that had not consented to the Court's jurisdiction.

Sanctions already extended to several officials

Since 2025, the American administration has extended its sanctions to at least nine Court officials, citing in particular the arrest warrants issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, in connection with the war between Israel and Hamas.

A legal battle opens in New York

In late June, three sitting judges of the Court, including Canadian jurist Kimberly Prost, sued the American administration before the Southern District of New York. Their central argument: the sanctions exceed presidential authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and violate the Fifth Amendment of the American Constitution.

The judges are asking the court to vacate the sanctions order and unfreeze the targeted magistrates' assets, a rare move that places international judges in the position of plaintiffs before an American federal court.

A test for the American balance of powers

This lawsuit is a reminder that even an administration determined to challenge an international institution must still reckon with its own federal courts, which retain the power to examine the legality of executive measures taken in the name of national security.

A posture extending to every sensitive file

Although Todd Blanche's letter does not explicitly name Iran, it fits a sequence in which the American administration is simultaneously challenging several international legal frameworks on sensitive files, including tensions with Tehran. This rhetoric of categorical rejection of outside jurisdictions reinforces the image of an America that refuses any external limitation on its military and diplomatic freedom of action, including in its standoff with Iran.

The timing is not incidental: this statement comes as the American Congress keeps stepping up demands for transparency from the Department of Justice on several sensitive files, creating internal institutional pressure that contrasts with the firmness displayed internationally.

A deliberate doctrinal consistency

This position aligns with the administration's broader doctrine: no multilateral institution, whether the International Criminal Court or other UN bodies, should be able to constrain American action, whether on the Israeli file, the Iranian file, or any other national security matter.

Oversight demands keep piling up

The American Senate sent a letter in early July to the Department of Justice demanding answers on several pending oversight matters, a bipartisan pressure that illustrates growing tension between the executive and legislative branches over the handling of sensitive judicial files.

This double pressure — firmness on display toward The Hague on one side, Congress's transparency demands on the other — puts the Department of Justice in an uncomfortable position, caught between asserting uncompromising sovereignty and the obligation to answer to its own democratic institutions.

A democracy that keeps checking itself

Despite legitimate criticism of the hard line taken toward international institutions, this internal oversight mechanism shows that American checks and balances have not disappeared, even under an administration that favors unilateralism.

A precedent that weakens the Court far beyond the United States

The outright rejection of the International Criminal Court by the world's leading military power sends a signal that other states, less scrupulous about respecting international law, could exploit in turn. If Washington can ignore the Court without consequence, why would Russia or other authoritarian regimes feel any more bound by its rulings?

That is the central paradox of this affair: in seeking to protect its own judicial sovereignty, the American administration is weakening a tool that has also historically served to prosecute Russian leaders for their actions in Ukraine, including the arrest warrant issued against Vladimir Putin himself in 2023.

A strategic contradiction that is hard to ignore

Weakening the legitimacy of the International Criminal Court, even as this institution has issued warrants against Russian officials, amounts to handing the Kremlin a free rhetorical argument, since it can now cite the American example to justify its own rejection of the Court's jurisdiction.

A file that goes beyond the Iranian question alone

The letter from Todd Blanche to the International Criminal Court will stand as one more marker of an American administration determined to recognize no international judicial authority above its own sovereign decisions. The link to the Iranian file remains indirect, but revealing of a consistent doctrine of rejecting multilateral constraints.

Vigilance needed for the future of international law

It remains to be seen whether this posture, appealing in the short term to its supporters, will not end up weakening legal tools the West could need tomorrow to hold leaders like Vladimir Putin accountable for their actions in Ukraine.

By Maxime Marquette, columnist

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