White House says administration supports Russia sanctions bill

A day after congressional leaders announced an agreement on a Russian sanctions bill, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the administration is supportive of the decision.

"The administration is supportive of being tough on Russia, particularly in putting these sanctions in place," the New York Times quoted Sanders as saying.

"The original piece of legislation was poorly written, but we were able to work with the House and Senate, and the administration is happy with the ability to do that and make those changes that were necessary and we support where the legislation is now," she added.

However, this contradicts White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci's statement that Trump was not sure Russia was behind efforts to influence the 2016 election, despite the intelligence community's assessment.

He said in an interview on CNN that the President was still considering it.

Meanwhile, the sanctions legislation to punish Russia for its election meddling and aggression toward its neighbors, would sharply limit the president's ability to suspend or terminate the sanctions.