President Trump has failed to enforce mandatory provisions of the 2017 Russia sanctions law, Senate Democrats charged Friday in a letter to independent investigators.
“Several mandatory provisions of the law have not been implemented by the administration, despite strong evidence that actions taken by or on behalf of the Russian government are in violation,” the lawmakers wrote.
New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, has criticized Trump’s implementation of the Russia sanctions law repeatedly in recent months. This latest effort includes Virginia Sen. Mark Warner and Sherrod Brown of Ohio — the top Democrats on the Intelligence and Banking committees, respectively. Together, they’re calling for an inspector general investigation of the administration’s approach to the sanctions law, known formally as the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act.
“We are concerned about whether the sanctions implementation process within the administration is fulfilling CAATSA’s mandate and intent,” the trio wrote to the inspectors general responsible for the Treasury Department, the State Department, and the intelligence community. An inspector general is an overseer of the federal government, within the executive branch.
The senators cited a pair of high-profile administration statements on Russia as evidence that Trump should have applied sanctions under the law. The first instance cited the White House’s willingness to denounce Russia for conducting cyberattacks against Ukraine and other European countries, “which should trigger sanctions under Section 224” of the law.
“Yet the administration has not imposed any such sanctions in response, nor has it issued waivers under this provision,” they wrote. They also invoked a flap between Trump’s team and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who announced that new sanctions would be released in response to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s use of chemical weapons, only to be contradicted by White House officials.
“This raises obvious questions about the provision of Russian technology or support to Syria in violation of Section 234 of the law,” they wrote. “Overall, CAATSA includes seven mandatory provisions (Sections 224, 225, 226, 228, 231, 233 and 234) which we believe merit further examination.”
Some of the highest-profile sanctions questions pertain to the export of Russian defense technology, including anti-aircraft defense systems. But Trump’s administration has taken other steps to put a crimp in the Russian economy. Notably, U.S. officials are using the threat of tariffs originally floated over trade disparities as a bargaining chip to induce Germany to scrap a major pipeline deal with Russia.
“Donald Trump is a deal-maker. … There is a deal to be made if someone [in Germany] stood up and said, ‘Help us protect our auto industry a little bit more, because we’re great at it and we’re going to help you on Nord Stream 2,’” a diplomat told the Wall Street Journal.
Trump, who has been dogged by an investigation into potential cooperation between his presidential campaign and the Kremlin in light of the 2016 cyberattacks against the Democratic party, maintains that skepticism about his posture towards Russia is unwarranted.
“And probably nobody has been tougher to Russia than Donald Trump,” the president said in April. “If you take a look at our military strength now — which would not have happened had the opponent won — if you take a look at the oil and gas that we’re producing now — we’re independent, we’re now exporting oil and gas — this is not something that Russia wanted.”
