In July 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Treasury Department announced that the United States would be imposing sanctions on Albanese. The sanctions were imposed for what Rubio called her “biased and malicious activities” in her rhetoric and actions recommending war crime charges against Israel to the International Criminal Court.“Albanese has spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West,” Rubio said last year.
Albanese’s family challenged the Trump administration’s decision in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, saying the sanctions have caused “irreparable harms” in their personal and professional lives. U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon, appointed by President George W. Bush, ordered that Trump administration officials could not impose the sanctions on the U.N. official.
“Albanese has done nothing more than speak!” Leon wrote in his opinion. “It is undisputed that her recommendations have no binding effect on the ICC’s actions – they are nothing more than her opinion.”
Leon determined that Albanese, an Italian citizen, had enough substantial ties to the U.S. — considering the facts that she lived and worked here for several years, her daughter was born in the U.S., she owns a home in D.C., and she often travels to the country for her work — to conclude that she is granted First Amendment rights.
