Rep. Schiff Statement on Sanctions Announcement

Statement

Today, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, released the following statement:

"It has been fourteen months since the Intelligence Community assessed President Putin ordered a covert influence campaign to interfere in the 2016 election, and bipartisan sanctions were sent more than seven months ago to the President to meaningfully punish malign actors directed by the Kremlin to undermine our electoral processes. The sanctions today are a grievous disappointment and fall far short of what is needed to respond to that attack on our democracy let alone deter Russia's escalating aggression, which now includes a chemical weapons attack on the soil of our closest ally.

"Only two new senior Russian officials with ties to military intelligence have been included and the Obama Administration had already imposed sanctions in December 2016 on the other named Russian intelligence entities and persons. While today's announcement includes individuals tied to the Russian troll farm and may signal some consequences for those who contributed to the Kremlin's cyber operations, they reflect no new work within the Administration to identify those responsible for interference in our electoral process, simply relying on the Special Counsel's indictment. It appears that Mr. Mueller is doing more to place consequences on Russia's behavior than the rest of the Administration.

"If President Trump believes that today's action sufficiently addresses the sanctions package Congress sent to respond forcefully to Moscow's election interference, then he is sorely mistaken. President Trump must personally commit to the American public that he is doing everything in his power to both deter future Russian active measures against our democracy and to commit all the resources necessary to defend the electoral process itself from outside cyber-attacks."

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