Mnuchin on sanctions against Venezuelan Vice President El Aissami: transcript

Key points

• Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the Treasury's OFAC had labeled the Venezuelan Vice President a specially designated narcotics trafficker under the Kingpin Act.
• Mnuchin said El Aissami was designated for a significant role in international narcotics trafficking, and his frontman Samark Lopez Bello was also designated.
• He said the action followed a multi-year investigation and showed the President's seriousness about fighting drugs, and he said it sent a message that America stands with the people of Venezuela.
• Asked about Russia, he said current sanctions programs and existing policies remain in place and that sanctions are an important tool.
• He expected tens of millions of dollars to be frozen as a result of the designations.
• Asked about the Federal Reserve, he said he would keep to the Venezuela topic and noted the tradition of Treasury Secretaries meeting regularly with the Fed head.

Chapters

1. 0:00Spicer introduces Treasury Secretary Mnuchin
2. 0:33Designation of El Aissami and Lopez Bello
3. 1:45Questions on Russia and Iran sanctions
4. 2:21Impact of the sanctions and frozen assets
5. 3:07Other tools and the Federal Reserve

Full transcript

0:00Good evening, good afternoon. Happy Valentine's Day. I can sense the love in the room. First off, last night, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control, OFAC, labeled the Venezuelan Vice President as a specially designated narcotics trafficker under the Kingpin Act. Before I continue with the briefing and look forward to your questions, I want to turn it over for a short time to newly minted Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, to take to issue a brief statement on this and deliver a few questions.

0:33Secretary Mnuchin. Secretary Mnuchin, President Biden Jr.: Pleasure to be here on my first busy day in office. Yesterday, the Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control, known as OFAC, designated Venezuelan national Tarek el-Asami as a specially designated narcotics trafficker pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act for playing a significant role and international narcotics trafficking.

1:04Al-Sami's primary frontman, Venezuelan national Samark Lopez-Bella, was also designated. These designations follow a multi-year investigation into al-Sami's criminal activities, and President Trump appreciates the hard work put into this case by the Department of Treasury, the Department of State, as well as the National Security Council, and many people throughout law enforcement. Following the signing of the executive order last week, designing to break the back of criminal drug cartels, this action demonstrates the President's seriousness about fighting the scourge of drugs in the United States.

1:45In addition, he wants to send a clear message to the people of Venezuela that America stands with them. And with that, I'm happy to take two or three questions specifically about this. The Press, Chair Mnuchin, since sanctions are directly relevant, obviously, to the Treasury Department, which is an agency that you now oversee, can you talk a little bit about plans to sanction Russia and if you will keep Obama-era sanctions against Russia? Mr. Our current sanctions programs are in place, and I would say sanctions are an important tool that we will continue to look at for various different countries.

2:21But it's a very important program within the Treasury Department. The Press, specifically, sir? Mr. The existing policies are in place. Mr. Secretary, are you contemplating any additional sanctions against Iran, and can you tell us what you think the bottom line will be of these particular sanctions you announced yesterday and are referring to today with the Venezuela Vice President? What's it going to mean? Secretary Sebelius. First, let me just comment, again, this is as a result of a very long effort. The Press. Did you inherit the implication, by the way? Secretary Sebelius. Yes, this was underway. This was a very long effort. But the implication is quite significant. We expect that there will be frozen tens of millions of dollars, and again, that sanctions, sanctions are a very important way of us sending a message that we will not stand for illicit activities, whether they're drug trafficking or terrorism.

3:07On a roster? Secretary, including sanctions, what other tools are you looking at? I can't comment on all the tools, but again, let me just reinforce that sanctions are a very important tool within the department, and we will use them as appropriate. What about freezing assets? In this case, we did freeze assets again, as I mentioned. and tens of millions of dollars of assets, and that will have a very big impact on this. So I'll take one more question, please. Yes, in the back. The Press. During the campaign, the President had You made comments about Janet Yellen and whether basically inferring that she was being too political and that she should be ashamed of herself. Did the folks at the Treasury Department and within the administration feel confident with Mrs. Yellen at the helm and to be able to set monetary policy going forward? Mr. Well, let me just comment. I'm really here today again to talk about the Venezuelan situation. But let me just say that there is a tradition of the Secretary of Treasury having ongoing meetings with the head of the

4:11Federal Reserve. And I look forward to that now that I'm in office doing that and spending time with her. Thank you very much, everybody. It's a pleasure to be here on my first day. Thank you.

Source and licence

Recording: File:21417 White House Press Briefing - Tareck El Aissami sanctions.webm by Unknown author Unknown author (2017-02-14), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The transcript is machine speech-to-text by the TidyTools Audio & video transcriber; the summary, key points and chapters were written by Claude from that transcript. Both may contain errors: check the recording before quoting it.