White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said Tuesday that the Trump administration's decision to not impose new Russian sanctions immediately "doesn't mean we're not implementing the law."
"I've talked to the Secretary of the Treasury today — and I am confident they are going through the steps necessary to implement the law," Mulvaney told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, referring to Steven Mnuchin.
"Let's be clear: We will implement the law fully.
"Just because the Treasury Department wants to take a couple days to do it right doesn't mean we're not implementing the law."
The White House said Monday that no further sanctions were needed on Moscow for its tampering in the 2016 presidential election, citing billions of dollars lost from potential deals with Russian arms companies that had been canceled by other world governments.
But the administration did release a list of 114 Russian politicians and 96 "oligarchs" who have flourished under President Vladimir Putin to fulfill a congressional demand that the United States punish Moscow for its meddling.
Monday was the deadline for the State Department and Treasury to comply with two provisions of the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which President Trump signed last year.
"We do look forward to getting the details from Treasury," Mulvaney told Blitzer. "Treasury's obviously heavily involved because of the financial nature of the sanctions."
Also regarding Russia, Mulvaney beat back reports that Trump has continuously complained to White House staff about the probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller.
"I don't think the president has ever raised Russia to me a single time," he said. "Either as budget director or the acting director.
"He's never mentioned it in a single instance."
Mulvaney also predicted that the federal government will not shut down on Feb. 8 over Democratic demands for a permanent solution to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
The impasse led to a two-day shutdown earlier this month that ended last week Monday.
"I think the Senate Democrats are telegraphing that they're willing to separate out DACA from the funding bill, moving this far down the road toward keeping the government open again.
"I don't think you're going to see a shutdown again.
"The only reason, in my opinion, why we had a shutdown was because the Senate Democrats wanted it.
"I don't think they want it anymore."
Also on immigration, Mulvaney estimated that about $18 million of the $25 million President Trump was seeking in the immigration blueprint formally released on Monday would be spent on a wall on the southern U.S. border with Mexico.
"The actual wall itself is probably somewhere in the nature of $18 billion," he told Blitzer, adding that the White House defined border security was "PTI."
"People, technology and infrastructure."
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