The Trump administration has re-added a United Nations human rights official to the U.S. sanctions blacklist just one week after quietly removing her, and less than two weeks after a federal judge ruled the original designation unconstitutional.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added Francesca Paola Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for Palestinian human rights, back to its Specially Designated Nationals list on Wednesday under Executive Order 14203, which authorizes sanctions against individuals engaged in ICC investigations. The re-designation came seven days after OFAC removed her from the same list on May 20, and 12 days after U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled in Washington that the original sanctions violated Albanese’s First Amendment rights.

Leon’s May 13 ruling found that the sanctions, imposed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio last July, rested solely on Albanese’s calls for the International Criminal Court to investigate and prosecute Israeli officials over their actions in Gaza—speech the judge said carried no binding legal effect. 

“Albanese has done nothing more than speak!” Leon wrote in a 26-page decision cited at the time by Politico. “It is undisputed that her recommendations have no binding effect on the ICC’s actions — they are nothing more than her opinion.”

The Trump administration subsequently appealed the decision. On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ⁠issued an administrative stay on Leon’s ruling, but added that the stay was procedural and “should not be construed in any way as a ruling ⁠on the merits” of the government’s request to overrule the lower court injunction during its appeal, Reuters said. 

White House officials first singled out Albanese after she sent “confidential” letters in spring 2025 to more than a dozen U.S. companies and two charities warning that they could be named in a forthcoming U.N. report for “contributing to gross violations of human rights” by Israel in Gaza and the West Bank. The companies included Alphabet, Amazon, Caterpillar, Chevron, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft and Palantir. 

The letters prompted alarm among corporate recipients, and at least two companies sought help from the White House. Despite the U.N.’s position that Albanese has diplomatic immunity, the Trump administration sanctioned her for “writing threatening letters” and for urging the ICC to investigate the companies. 

Albanese and blacklisted ICC staff were added to the Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals list, alongside figures such as suspected al Qaeda terrorists and major drug traffickers.

In February, members of Albanese’s family sued President Trump and senior White House officials, arguing that the sanctions had unduly cut Albanese off from bank accounts, strained relationships with several universities, limited her ability to travel to the United States, and restricted access to her apartment in Washington. Because U.N. policy bars Albanese from bringing the suit in her own name, the lawsuit was filed by her husband and child. 

The decision to levy sanctions against Albanese reportedly contributed to the decision by John Hurley, then-U.S. undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, to resign from his role earlier this year.