Democrats on a Senate panel voted against advancing President Trump’s nominee for the top anti-terror post at the Treasury on Tuesday in an attempt to get more information from the agency related to the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia.
Seven Democrats voted against approving the nomination of Sigal Mandelker for undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence at the Senate Banking Committee, with some saying that they would have voted for her if the information had been provided.
“I find myself in an undesirable position today, one that could have been avoided,” said Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, a member of the committee who is also the top Democrat on the panel tasked with investigating possible Russian influence on the Trump campaign.
Warner is among the Democrats who have said they will block the confirmation of Mandelker until Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network provides any documents that might be available regarding Trump campaign officials’ business relationships with Russian or other overseas groups.
“The administration so far has failed to make an appropriate appreciation for our sense of urgency by not fully responding to our request,” Warner said Tuesday.
“Considering the volatile situations in North Korea, Syria, Iran, and with non-state actors like ISIS, I am all for getting these important national security nominees in place,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, another Democratic “no” vote Tuesday. “How fast we do that depends in part on how quickly the Treasury Department satisfies these bipartisan requests for information.”
Nevertheless, Mandelker’s nomination advanced to the full Senate on a bipartisan basis, with three other nominees to the Treasury and Commerce departments.
