Victory for International Justice Efforts: Trump Administration Declines to Defend Sanctions on International Criminal Court Trial Attorney 

New York, NY– On May 5th, Human Rights First filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on behalf of the International Criminal Court (ICC) trial attorney and U.S. Army veteran, Eric Iverson. The lawsuit challenged the administration’s dangerous misuse of U.S. sanctions that, by preventing Iverson from doing his job, threatened accountability for war crimes and violated his fundamental rights. Yesterday, the Trump administration conceded through the issuance of a Treasury Department license that Iverson was correct, allowing us to withdraw the case. Of course, the government had no legitimate basis to prevent Iverson from doing his work to begin with.

The following statement is from Josh Colangelo-Bryan, Human Rights First’s lead lawyer on the case:

“The Trump administration’s recent imposition of sanctions on the ICC’s chief prosecutor has had a range of terrible consequences. One was that our client, Eric Iverson, who prosecutes crimes committed in Darfur, had to stop working so as not to be seen as providing services to a sanctioned individual. We sued the administration for Eric because the sanctions regime violated his First Amendment rights, beyond keeping him from bringing justice to victims of terrible crimes. After an initial hearing, the government capitulated, effectively confirming that Eric was legally entitled to do everything we had asserted he was entitled to do.”

To speak with Josh, contact [email protected]. More information on the case is available here.