White House Order on Election Meddling Has No Teeth, Officials Say
The White House proudly trumpeted an executive order Wednesday that it promises will slap sanctions on foreign actors found to be interfering in America’s elections.
One problem: the order doesn’t actually punish anyone, lawmakers and former and current U.S. officials tell The Daily Beast. Instead, it merely provides a pathway toward determining those punishments—a pathway that critics say already existed, and one that is not likely to result in any specific designations until well after the 2018 elections.
“This executive order authorizes the development and application of sanctions against any individual, any entity, or country that authorizes, directs, sponsors, or otherwise supports interference in a U.S. election,” said Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence. “So it’s pretty broad in terms of what happens here when the process gets in place.”
The order authorizes Coats to identify attempts to interfere in U.S. elections that include, but are not limited to, social-media influence campaigns and efforts to hack into election infrastructure and voting systems. Multiple federal agencies, including the Justice Department and Treasury Department, will then have 45 days to determine the appropriate punishments, Coats and John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser, said Wednesday.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/white-house-order-on-election-meddling-has-no-teeth-officials-say/ar-BBNf4sG?li=BBnb7Kz
But it gave Drumph an oppurtunity to show off his sloppy signature
