Yahoo News reports Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin once again told Congress the administration definitely will implement new sanctions on Russia as punishment for its 2016 U.S.election interference.
In testimony before a House subcommittee, Mnuchin pushed back against the idea that Trump is trying to block the sanctions in response to Russia's meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, saying Trump is "fully supportive."
"We will implement them," Mnuchin said. "I expect in next several weeks we'll be going forward with sanctions on Russia."
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Mnuchin assured the legislators that "in recent conversations with the president he is fully supportive of the work we are doing," and that the sanctions will be enforced.
At a separate hearing, Dan Coats, director of National Intelligence, said he expects Treasury to announce the Russia sanctions "within a week."
Democratic representative Mike Quigley said the only step taken so far has been a "laughable report on Russian oligarchs," but Mnuchin said the classified report given to Congress detailed the efforts to design the package of penalties.
This is now at least the fourth time Mnuchin has promised sanctions are on the way.
He first said sanctions were coming on January 30th after Treasury produced a laughable list of influential Russians who could be subject to sanctions. Then two weeks later, Mnuchin told the Senate Finance Committee his department was working on sanctions but did not say when they might happen. And on February 23rd, Mnuchin raised the issue of Russia during a press conference detailing new sanctions on North Korea, offering, "we are working on Russia sanctions" and saying he would be back to talk about them "within the next several weeks."
US sanctions on Russia coming soon: Treasury secretary (Yahoo News)