Mnuchin: Trump admin ‘actively working’ on more Russia sanctions

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told a Senate committee on Wednesday the Trump administration is planning to roll out new sanctions against Russia in response to the country’s interference in the 2016 election. 

“We are actively working on Russia sanctions coming out of the classified briefing,” Mnuchin said in a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. 

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“I can assure you those sanctions are coming. We are working on them as we speak,” he told the senators.

Mnuchin during the hearing was pressed by Democrats on the administration’s stance toward new sanctions, as well as the president’s attitude toward Russia’s election meddling. 

The administration has been criticized for not implementing fresh sanctions on Moscow at the end of January, when it faced a deadline to do so under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). Following the blowback, Mnuchin assured lawmakers on Capitol Hill that the administration would impose new sanctions.

“This should in no way be interpreted as we’re not putting sanctions on anyone in that report,” he said during a hearing with the Senate Banking Committee at the time.

CAATSA allows the president to postpone sanctions on individuals as long as companies are winding down their business dealings with Russia.

Although the administration didn’t implement new sanctions at the time, it did release a list containing names of Russian business and political figures, which officials later clarified wasn’t intended to be a “sanctions list.”