President Trump’s Justice Department just drew a hard line with the International Criminal Court, and it left nothing to interpretation.
On July 2, 2026, DOJ announced that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche had sent a letter that week to Judge Tomoko Akane, the president of the ICC.
The message was simple. The United States rejects any claim that the ICC has jurisdiction over Americans.
Blanche’s argument rests on a point that has never changed. America is not a party to the Rome Statute and has never consented to the court’s authority.
In a letter this week addressed to the President of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote that the Department of Justice rejects any assertion of jurisdiction by the ICC over Americans.
The United States is not a party to the Rome…
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) July 2, 2026
The Justice Department laid out the reasoning in plain terms. The release framed the letter as a formal defense of American sovereignty, not a routine diplomatic memo.
DOJ said Blanche’s letter was sent to Judge Tomoko Akane, the president of the ICC, and formally rejected any assertion that the court can reach Americans. The department also emphasized that America never joined the Rome Statute and never consented to the court’s authority.
A treaty cannot bind a country that never agreed to it, DOJ said, which means the ICC has no jurisdiction over Americans anywhere in the world. That applies to U.S. servicemembers, officials, and civilians, the exact categories Congress moved to protect in 2002.
The release described any attempt to assert that kind of authority as illegitimate, unlawful, and a direct affront to U.S. sovereignty.
DOJ also pointed to the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act of 2002, the law that repudiates ICC jurisdiction over U.S. persons, including servicemembers, government officials, and civilians.
That statute prohibits cooperation with the ICC and authorizes the President to use all necessary and appropriate means to secure the release of any American detained under an ICC warrant or request.
That turns the warning into a sovereignty marker. DOJ is grounding the position in U.S. law, treaty consent, and the basic question of who gets to judge American citizens.
Blanche’s June 29 letter spelled out exactly what that looks like going forward. It moves from legal objection to operational warning, which is why the language matters.
The United States will not cooperate with any ICC investigation, inquiry, summons, or proceeding. The letter also says the ICC has acted in an increasingly lawless and illegitimate manner.
It will neither extradite nor transfer any U.S. person to the court, and it will actively oppose any other country that tries to do so. Blanche also cited selective enforcement, internal-misconduct allegations, and repeated attempts to claim authority over countries that never consented.
And if an American is ever detained under purported ICC authority, the letter says the United States will take all necessary measures to secure that person’s immediate release.
Blanche also accused the court of repeatedly asserting jurisdiction over non-consenting countries and disregarding its own limits.
For Blanche, the central issue is authority. The court can claim power over Americans, but the United States says that claim has no force.
That is the key word here: submit. The letter does not read like a request for dialogue; it reads like a formal refusal.
𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐌𝐏 𝐃𝐎𝐉 𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐈𝐂𝐂 𝐈𝐓 𝐇𝐀𝐒 𝐙𝐄𝐑𝐎 𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐘 𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐒, 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑
Acting Attorney General 𝐓𝐨𝐝𝐝 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞 sent a formal letter to the International Criminal Court this week making one thing permanent: the United… pic.twitter.com/fMGAodDIQr
— M.A. Rothman (@MichaelARothman) July 3, 2026
None of this arrived out of nowhere. It builds directly on the President’s earlier action.
The White House imposed sanctions on the ICC through a February 6, 2025 presidential order after finding the court had engaged in illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and Israel.
That order said the ICC has no jurisdiction over the United States or Israel because neither is a party to the Rome Statute or a member of the court. It also warned that ICC actions could endanger current and former U.S. personnel.
It also said the United States expects its allies to oppose ICC actions against America, Israel, or any other U.S. ally that has not consented to the court’s authority.
Put the sanctions order and the Blanche letter together and the posture is clear. The administration is drawing a line instead of asking the ICC to reconsider.
It is telling the court the answer is permanent.
Americans in uniform and in government have long faced the threat of foreign prosecutors reaching across borders to second-guess their decisions. This administration just made plain that no such prosecutor will touch a U.S. citizen without a fight.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
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