U.S. President Donald Trump will allow a bipartisan sanctions bill targeting countries doing business with Russia to move forward in Congress and it could be put to a vote as early as next week, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on Wednesday.
Graham said in a statement Trump had “greenlit” the legislation after the pair met on Wednesday.
Sen. Lindsey Graham said Wednesday after meeting with President Donald Trump that the Senate could vote as soon as next week to impose new sanctions aimed at pressuring Russia to end its war with Ukraine.
“After a very productive meeting today with President Trump on a variety of issues, he greenlit the bipartisan Russia sanctions bill that I have been working on for months with Senator [Richard] Blumenthal and many others,” Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement, referring to the Connecticut Democrat who coauthored the long-stalled legislation.
Asked about Graham’s remarks, a White House official said Trump supports the legislation. Graham said a Senate vote would take place “hopefully as early as next week.”
Graham and Senate Republican leaders have been working with the White House for months to try to reach an agreement on a final version of the legislation — and this isn’t the first time Graham has declared that his bill could soon move, for it to only stall out again.
The legislation would place secondary sanctions on countries such as China and India that buy oil and gas from Russia in a bid to cut off the cash flow for President Vladimir Putin’s war machine.
“Ukraine is making concessions for peace and Putin is all talk, continuing to kill the innocent,” Graham said, saying the legislation would be “well-timed.”
A spokesperson for Graham didn’t immediately respond to a question about whether changes will be incorporated at Trump’s request. The president has previously requested absolute flexibility to impose and retract any sanctions at will.
It shows how the House Oversight Committee could continue to find itself at the center of efforts to re-investigate the Epstein case as the Justice Department presides over a prolonged and rocky rollout of materials.
The successful motions, brought by the top Democrat on panel, California Rep. Robert Garcia, appeared to be the result of an agreement between Garcia and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who also successfully moved to subpoena American businessman Neville Singham and journalist Seth Harp.
“There is probably no one more important as it relates to the financing and the work of this investigation, which both sides of the aisle are interested in,” Garcia said, of Wexner. “Public reporting has documented their longstanding ties. He should answer our questions in a non-partisan way to get the truth.”
Luna concurred: “I think that this is a sound motion for subpoena because Les Wexner has been named by victims and also, too, is in a number of documentaries,” she said and urged her colleagues to join her in supporting the effort.
In moving to subpoena Singham, Luna cited a letter signed by then-Sen. Marco Rubio, who now serves as Secretary of State, suggesting the entrepreneur may have been connected to activities that violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Luna also claimed Singham was funding groups that were adverse to American interests.
Rep. Dave Min (D-Calif.) questioned why Luna was making her motion at this time. Still, Garcia recommended lawmakers vote “yes” despite Min’s concerns, explaining “the representative made clear her support for the deposition that we’re going to have with Mr. Wexner.”
In an interview after the Wexner vote, Garcia said he did not negotiate the matter with Luna before the hearing.
“[Congress is] about compromise, and I think for us, the Les Wexner subpoena is at the center of this investigation,” he said.
Garcia also supported Luna’s motion to subpoena Harp, who has been accused of doxxing a Delta Force official involved in the operation to arrest Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Separately, the committee rejected a bid from Democrats to subpoena the Department of Homeland Security for records related to the Wednesday shooting of a woman in Minneapolis by an ICE agent.
The panel struck down an attempt from Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) to issue the subpoena at the end of an hours-long hearing around the welfare fraud scandal in Minnesota. Pressley requested “documents and footage” of the fatal incident.
Garcia said he was hopeful the panel would investigate the episode.
“We’re talking about Minnesota right now,” he said. “This was a killing by an ICE agent. There are videos that are now online. There’s testimony that’s being brought to light. It’s horrific. I encourage folks to watch those videos and see what’s happened for themselves.”
