TRUMP IS DISMANTLING THE WAR CRIMES COURT
Nine of the International Criminal Court's eighteen judges now carry American sanctions. On Tuesday the Treasury added its president, Tomoko Akane.
Kimberly Prost lost her credit cards. Amazon closed her account. She could not shop online, could not send money to her family, and her Alexa stopped answering her. Prost is a Canadian judge at the International Criminal Court, sanctioned by the Trump administration last year. A sanctioned colleague's daughter had her American visa revoked.
The Treasury does that with a listing. It freezes everything the person owns that touches the American financial system. It bars Americans from dealing with them. It shuts them and their families out of the country. And banks anywhere in the world cut them off the moment the name appears, American or not.
On Tuesday the Treasury put the court's president on that list.
Tomoko Akane, a Japanese judge, has run the court since March 2024. Marco Rubio announced her designation and one more: Abdoulaye Seye, a Senegalese trial lawyer at the court. Nobody has explained what Seye did. Trump signed the order behind both on 6 February 2025, and the prohibitions bite on 17 September.
The administration has now sanctioned nine of the court's eighteen judges. Add both deputy prosecutors, the former chief prosecutor and one more prosecution lawyer: thirteen officials. It has also sanctioned a United Nations investigator and three Palestinian rights groups.
