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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday will sign an executive order sanctioning the International Criminal Court, accusing the body of improperly targeting the United States and Israel, according to a copy of a fact sheet supporting the order obtained by NBC News.
The order will include both financial sanctions and visa restrictions against unspecified ICC officials and their family members found to have assisted in ICC investigations of U.S. citizens or allies.
Last November, the ICC sparked bipartisan backlash in Washington by issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defense minister and several Hamas leaders simultaneously. The Trump administration order claims this created a “shameful moral equivalency.”
The expected signing of this order this afternoon appears timed to the Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, which included an Oval Office meeting Tuesday.
In his first term, Trump argued that the ICC has “no jurisdiction, no legitimacy and no authority” in the U.S., and neither the U.S. nor Israel are parties to the so-called Rome Statute, which established the court.
“The ICC was designed to be a court of last resort,” the fact sheet on the executive order reads. “Both the United States and Israel maintain robust judiciary systems and should never be subject to the jurisdiction of the ICC.”
Earlier this year, the House passed a bill to sanction the ICC that was later blocked by Democrats the Senate.
