Thread by @KlasfeldReports

Trump orders sanctions on workers at the International Criminal Court, ratcheting up campaign to squelch war-crimes probe of U.S. military and CIA torture in Afghanistan and black sites. via @JackRodgersCNS courthousenews.com/trump-orders-s…

Some background here:

As the "court of last resort," the ICC steps in where nation states refuse to prosecute war crimes domestically. This investigation stems from the U.S. failure to prosecute Bush-era torture in Afghanistan and black sites.

No U.S. admin welcomed the ICC probe, but Trump escalated this to an active campaign to undermine and punish the court.

Last year, it worked: A week after Trump revoked the ICC prosecutor's visa, the court quashed the probe.

April 2019: courthousenews.com/buckling-to-tr…

The three-judge ICC panel explicitly cited the US “lack of cooperation” as rationale for their decision, explicitly finding that the standards for opening up an investigation had been met.

For international law attorneys like @KGatherga1, the ICC's decision last year sent the message that "bullying wins and that the powerful won’t be held to account."

The ICC's decision was appealed, & overturned, in March this year, authorizing the probe. icc-cpi.int/Pages/item.asp…

For a probe so momentous, there has been relatively little public knowledge or understanding of it.

This is an overview of what the ICC is investigating, why the issue is coming up again now, and how Trump's pressure campaign has a history of undermining the court.

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Correcting a tag here: @katherga1