Pompeo Oversells Trump’s Enthusiasm for Sanctions on Russia

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/25/us/politics/fact-check-pompeo-sanctions-russia.html

Version 0 of 1.

what was said

Senator Ben Cardin, Democrat of Maryland: “So I just really want to point out — and we’ve had this from previous administrations but not such as we’re hearing today — that what Congress is requiring you to do, all of a sudden, you found religion and are taking credit for it. But in reality, you have not implemented one time the sanctions passed by Congress.” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: “Senator, first, that’s not true. We have passed a number of sanctions under the Caatsa [Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act] provisions. And it is also true, at least my best recollection of the Constitution is, the president signed that law as well.”

the facts

Mr. Pompeo is exaggerating the Trump administration’s support for the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act.

While the administration “gets credit for compliance, clearly it was Congress pushing the administration’s hand” to pass the law, said Alina Polyakova, a Russia expert at the Brookings Institution.

The law, which was enacted in August, imposed new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea. It also upheld earlier sanctions that President Barack Obama had enacted through executive orders and it limited President Trump’s ability to lift sanctions against Russia.

The legislation passed with overwhelming support — a veto-proof majority vote of 98 to 2 in the Senate and 419 to 3 in the House.

Mr. Pompeo is right that Mr. Trump eventually signed the law. But the president did so reluctantly after the White House pushed to weaken the bill. Even as he signed it into law, Mr. Trump called the bill “seriously flawed” and said that it “included a number of clearly unconstitutional provisions.”

As the law requires, the administration imposed economic sanctions in March on individuals and organizations linked to Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. In April, American sanctions were issued against some of Russia’s richest men and top government officials. More sanctions were imposed in June on individuals and organizations accused of directly supporting efforts to carry out cyberattacks in the United States and in Ukraine as well as on digital infrastructure around the world.

Mr. Cardin also correctly noted that the administration refused to impose Russia-related sanctions in one case. In January, the administration declined to penalize countries that buy Russian military equipment out of concern that doing so would hurt American allies.

Mr. Pompeo either denied this fact or misunderstood Mr. Cardin’s statement to mean the Trump administration had not imposed any sanctions as required by the law.

Mr. Pompeo’s suggestion that the administration has been tough on Russia is not without merits. It has placed sanctions on individuals who participated in Russia’s incursion in Ukraine before the sanctions act was enacted and, under a separate law, against Russians accused of abusing human rights.

The administration also expelled 60 Russian officials from the United States in March, after the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.

But, at the same time, Mr. Trump himself has repeatedly denied or cast doubt on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

Source: Congress.gov, Alina Polyakova, Senate.gov, House.gov, The New York Times, the White House, Treasury Department