However, White House spokesman Sean Spicer announced that there was a procedural violation during the passing of the bill. He did not offer any specifics about the nature of this violation, and did not elaborate on whether US President Donald Trump supports the new measures aimed at applying pressure against Russia.
Meanwhile, Professor Alexander Domrin from the Higher School of Economics told Sputnik Radio that the White House merely implemented the principle of separation of powers in this instance so that US President Donald Trump didn’t even have to veto the sanctions bill.
"Procedural issues often provide the president with an excuse not to sign an already adopted document; this happened hundreds of times, for example, during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. The dialogue often goes like this: you have your own lawyers in Congress who drafted you the grounds for some new bill, but I have my lawyers in the White House. These ironclad rules of the checks and balances are the principle of separation of powers in the US. And now Trump implemented this mechanism so that he doesn’t even need to use his veto to cancel this bill," Domrin explained.
However, the professor pointed out that this move will cause Trump to face a fresh barrage of criticism from Congress.
"This is the most difficult moment. Despite the fact that all of this is within the framework of the American constitutional law, no matter what Trump does he’ll be blasted for allegedly being ‘an agent of the Kremlin.’ And this is what’s really sad," Domrin surmised.
