U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin should take action against the 12 Russian military intelligence officers who were recently indicted by the Department of Justice for their alleged role in interfering in the U.S. 2016 presidential election.
Senators Pat Toomey and Chris Van Hollen said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
“Vladimir Putin and those acting at his direction meddled in our 2016 presidential election.
“Accordingly, the Treasury should again exercise the tools it has at its disposal and penalise those identified as carrying out this attack on our country,’’ Toomey said.
Sen. Van Hollen echoed Toomey’s remarks, calling on Mnuchin to sanction the indicted officers as Congress considers additional measures to prevent alleged attempts by foreign agents to interfere in U.S. elections in the future.
Earlier in July, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced that the Office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted Russian spies for allegedly hacking the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign during the 2016 election.
Russian officials have repeatedly denied interfering in U.S. internal affairs, including the 2016 vote.
Moscow has also said the false charges are being used by American politicians and the U.S. media to demonise Russia and distract from pressing domestic issues.
Both U.S. President Donald Trump and the Kremlin have rejected accusations of collusion
Comments are closed.