There is zero doubt Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election.  Congress, which can’t agree on anything, agreed that Russia needed to be punished.  The House voted 419-3 and the Senate followed voting 98-2 to impose sanctions.

That bill passed last July and the deadline for imposing penalties was today.  But then a strange thing happened.  The White House announced no new sanctions were needed.  And that the bill calling for sanctions was “already serving as a deterrent.”  You’re welcome, Vladimir Putin.

Donald Trump has long held sanctions were a terrible idea because to sanction would mean admitting he believed Russia was involved in his big win.  And for those who think there might have been some collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians, today’s news is more ammunition. Some high-level Republicans were disbelieving.

https://twitter.com/JWGOP/status/958124681109876736

But then the Director of the CIA seemed to contradict the official government stance on no new sanctions.  Mike Pompeo confirmed today that Russia “was like targeting mid-term elections.”  Pompeo told the BBC  “there had been no significant diminishing of Russian attempts at subversion in Europe and the US.”