{"slug":"icc-sanctions-eo-13928-bensouda-2020","title":"Executive Order 13928: First-Term Sanctions on ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda (2020)","date":"2020-06-11","lastUpdated":"2026-10-04","description":"On June 11, 2020, President Trump signed Executive Order 13928, declaring a national emergency over the International Criminal Court and authorising asset freezes and entry bans against foreign persons who take part in ICC efforts to investigate or prosecute US or allied personnel without consent. The order's preamble cites the ICC Prosecutor's investigation of alleged conduct by US personnel in or relating to Afghanistan. On September 2, 2020 the State Department designated Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and senior official Phakiso Mochochoko. The emergency was terminated in April 2021.","summary":"Trump used a national-emergency sanctions order to freeze the assets of the ICC's chief prosecutor and a senior aide because the court was investigating possible crimes by US personnel in Afghanistan. Human Rights Watch called it a 'perverse use of sanctions, devised for alleged terrorists and drug kingpins.' The order was revoked in 2021.","category":"rule-of-law","severity":"critical","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/full_text/html/2020/06/15/2020-12953.html","title":"Executive Order 13928: Blocking Property of Certain Persons Associated With the International Criminal Court","publisher":"Federal Register"},{"url":"https://www.federalregister.gov/api/v1/documents/2020-12953.json","title":"EO 13928 document record (signing date, citation, revocation by EO 14022)","publisher":"Federal Register"},{"url":"https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/02/us-sanctions-international-criminal-court-prosecutor","title":"US Sanctions International Criminal Court Prosecutor","publisher":"Human Rights Watch"},{"url":"https://www.federalregister.gov/api/v1/documents.json?conditions%5Bexecutive_order_numbers%5D%5B%5D=14022","title":"Federal Register search record: Termination of Emergency With Respect to the International Criminal Court (document 2021-07239, published April 7, 2021)","publisher":"Federal Register"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["ICC","International Criminal Court","sanctions","Fatou Bensouda","Afghanistan","obstruction of justice","first term"],"relatedEntries":["icc-sanctions","icc-immunity-demands-rome-statute","trump-first-term-war-criminal-pardons-gallagher"],"timeline":[{"date":"2020-06-11","title":"Executive Order 13928 signed","summary":"Trump declares a national emergency with respect to the ICC and authorises asset blocking and entry suspension for foreign persons involved in ICC efforts to investigate or prosecute US or allied personnel without consent (85 FR 36139, published June 15, 2020)."},{"date":"2020-09-02","title":"Bensouda and Mochochoko designated","summary":"The State Department designates ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and Phakiso Mochochoko under the order, freezing their US assets (Human Rights Watch)."},{"date":"2021-04-01","title":"Emergency terminated","summary":"The national emergency declared in EO 13928 is terminated and the order revoked (Federal Register record of EO 13928, revoked by EO 14022; termination order published April 7, 2021)."}],"custom":{"era":"first-term","posture":"executive-action","internationalLaw":[{"statute":"Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court","article":"Article 70(1)(d)","provision":"Offence of impeding or intimidating an official of the Court to force or persuade them not to perform their duties. The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute."},{"statute":"UN Charter","article":"Article 1(3)","provision":"Purpose of promoting and encouraging respect for human rights; context for state cooperation with international justice mechanisms"},{"statute":"UN Convention against Torture","article":"Articles 2, 4, 12 and 14","provision":"Duty to prevent, criminalise, investigate and provide redress for torture (the United States is a party). The ICC investigation the order targeted concerned possible torture by US personnel."}],"iccRelevance":true,"victims":"ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and ICC official Phakiso Mochochoko, who were designated; indirectly, victims of alleged crimes in Afghanistan (including alleged torture in detention) whose access to an international forum the order sought to block.","perpetrators":"President Donald Trump (signed EO 13928); Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (made the designations)","structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Donald Trump","role":"Signed Executive Order 13928","institution":"White House"},{"name":"Mike Pompeo","role":"Secretary of State; designations under the order","institution":"Department of State"}],"keyPoints":["Executive Order 13928 (signed June 11, 2020; 85 FR 36139) declared that 'any attempt by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute any United States personnel without the consent of the United States' is 'an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States' (Federal Register).","The order authorised blocking the property of foreign persons determined to have 'directly engaged in any effort by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute' US personnel, or personnel of allies without their consent, and of anyone who materially assisted such efforts; it also suspended their entry into the United States (Federal Register).","Its preamble names the ICC Prosecutor's 'investigation into actions allegedly committed by United States military, intelligence, and other personnel in or relating to Afghanistan' (Federal Register).","On September 2, 2020 the administration designated Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and Phakiso Mochochoko, head of the Office of the Prosecutor's Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division, freezing their US assets and barring dealings with US persons (Human Rights Watch).","Human Rights Watch's Richard Dicker: 'The Trump administration's perverse use of sanctions, devised for alleged terrorists and drug kingpins, against prosecutors seeking justice for grave international crimes, magnifies the failure of the US to prosecute torture.'","The administration had already revoked the Prosecutor's US visa in 2019 (Human Rights Watch). The national emergency was terminated in April 2021 (Federal Register, document 2021-07239)."],"searchAliases":["EO 13928","Bensouda sanctions","ICC sanctions 2020","Mochochoko"],"legalBasis":"Executive Order 13928 under IEEPA and the National Emergencies Act; assessed against the international duty to investigate and prosecute torture (UN Convention against Torture) and Rome Statute Article 70 (offences against the administration of justice, which the US as a non-party is not bound by).","postureNote":"The facts are documented in the Federal Register and were not disputed by the administration, which defended the order as protecting US personnel from a court whose jurisdiction it rejects. No court ruled on the order before it was revoked in April 2021. The 2025 sanctions programme against ICC officials is covered separately in the icc-sanctions entry.","relatedIncidents":["icc-sanctions","icc-immunity-demands-rome-statute","trump-first-term-war-criminal-pardons-gallagher"]}}