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The Trump administration is considering new sanctions against Russia, pushing back against criticism that it has been slow to respond to alleged election meddling and a cyber-attack, as the Mueller investigation gathers speed.
It emerged on Wednesday that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had filed new criminal charges against President Donald Trump's former senior campaign aides Paul Manafort and Rick Gates.
Former Trump aide Sam Nunberg, meanwhile, will be interviewed on Thursday as part of the US special counsel's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Pressure on Trump to act
Republicans and Democrats in the US Congress, which voted for a new sanctions bill against Russia last summer, have criticized President Donald Trump for not punishing Moscow and accused him of being soft on Vladimir Putin. The Trump administration in January decided not to announce sanctions against Russia under the new law.
In a briefing for reporters, three senior administration officials involved in sanctions work described a process that is slow moving for legal reasons and cannot be accelerated in response to negative headlines.
The officials said some sanctions have already been imposed against two Russian entities -- Concord Catering and Concord Management and Consulting -- cited last week in a 37-page indictment from Mueller about Russia's meddling in the 2016 election.
The business center Lakhta-2, which reportedly houses news organizations and Internet research companies known for trolling on social media, in St. Petersburg, Russia, February 20, 2018.
The indictment said the firms controlled the Internet Research Agency, a group that coordinated the meddling. Sanctions were imposed on them in June related to Russia's actions in Ukraine.
The officials said they are also looking ahead to the potential for tampering in the 2018 midterm congressional elections in November.
"The process on sanctions is long; it's arduous; it’s not pretty, but when the evidence is there and we're ready, we go ahead with the sanctions," one official said.
The officials said there is an active review under way on how to respond to last week's designation of Russia as responsible for the "NotPetya" cyber-attack last year.
New charges for Manafort
New sealed criminal charges have been filed in federal court in the case brought by Mueller against Manafort and Gates, a court record seen by Reuters on Wednesday showed.
The single page, filed at the US District Court for the District of Columbia, does not shed light on the nature of the new charges.
Paul Manafort, former campaign chairman for US President Donald Trump, departs after a bond hearing as part of the Mueller investigation, at US District Court in Washington, US, December 11, 2017.
Manafort, who was Trump's campaign manager for almost five months in 2016, and Gates, who was deputy campaign manager, were indicted by Mueller's office in October.
They face charges including conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy to defraud the United States and failure to file as foreign agents for lobbying work they did on behalf of the pro-Russian Ukrainian Party of Regions. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Mueller to interview Nunberg
Mueller is expected to interview former Trump aide Nunberg on Thursday. Nunberg started working for then-businessman Trump in 2011, making him one of his earliest political advisers, but he was fired from the Republican's campaign in August 2015.
The interview comes about a week after investigators questioned Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon. Nunberg is thought to be close to Bannon and is also an associate of Trump ally and longtime political consultant Roger Stone.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller departs after briefing members of the US Senate on his investigation into potential collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US, June 21, 2017.
Nunberg was dismissed months into the presidential campaign after Business Insider reported that he had written racially-charged Facebook posts in 2007. He said he did not remember writing them and apologized.
Trump later sued Nunberg seeking damages of 10 million US dollars, saying the former aide had broken a confidentiality agreement. The lawsuit was settled in August 2016 and the one-page filing in a New York court did not provide details of the terms.
Mueller has so far charged several Trump associates and more than a dozen Russians. Russia denies the allegations of election meddling and Trump says there was no collusion between Moscow and his campaign.
(CGTN)
