Executive Order on Imposing Certain Sanctions in the Event of Foreign Interference in a United States Election
-
Was the Trump admin highly prepared all along?
Executive Order on Imposing Certain Sanctions in the Event of Foreign Interference in a United States Election
Below an easier format and summary:
PREAMBLE:
(A) POTUS authority statement. (Executive Order (“EO”) supported by U.S. Constitution & Various U.S.Code/Statutes/Acts).
(B) POTUS background statement. Vulnerability of U.S. elections “constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.” Various forms of foreign interference include but not limited to;
a. i) unauthorized accessing of election and campaign infrastructure
b. ii) covert distribution of propaganda and disinformation.ORDER
SECTION 1: Process and Reporting requirements of the Order
Section 1(a):
i) Within 45 days of the conclusion of a U.S. election, the Director of National Intelligence, in consultation with the heads of any other appropriate executive departments and agencies (agencies), shall conduct an assessment of any information indicating that a foreign government, or any person acting as an agent of or on behalf of a foreign government, has acted with the intent or purpose of interfering in that election.
ii) The assessment shall identify
a) the nature of foreign interference
b) any methods employed to execute it,
c) the persons involved, and
d) the foreign government or governments that authorized, directed, sponsored, or supported it.iii) The Director of National Intelligence shall deliver this assessment and appropriate supporting information to
a) the President,
b) the Secretary of State,
c) the Secretary of the Treasury,
d) the Secretary of Defense,
e) the Attorney General, and
f) the Secretary of Homeland Security.Section 1(b):
i) Within 45 days of receiving the assessment required by Section 1(a), the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security, … shall deliver to the President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Secretary of Defense a report evaluating, the following:
a) the extent to which any foreign interference that targeted election infrastructure materially affected the security or integrity of that infrastructure,
b) the tabulation of votes, or the timely transmission of election results;
c) if any foreign interference involved activities targeting the infrastructure of, or pertaining to, a political organization, campaign, or candidate, the extent to which such activities materially affected the security or integrity of that infrastructure, including by unauthorized access to, disclosure or threatened disclosure of, or alteration or falsification of, information or data.ii) The report shall identify the following:
a) material issues of fact (this means issues which the Judicial Branch must resolve) with respect to these matters that the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security are unable to evaluate or reach agreement on at the time the report is submitted.
b) The report shall also include updates and recommendations, when appropriate, regarding remedial actions to be taken by the United States Government, other than the sanctions described in sections 2 and 3 of this order (remember this for later)Section 1(c):
i) Heads of all relevant agencies shall transmit to the Director of National Intelligence any information relevant to the execution of the Director’s duties pursuant to this order.
ii) The report can be amended after it’s submission, provided proper consultation with the relevant agencies
Section 1(d):
i) The order does not prohibit early submission of relevant information.
Section 1(e):
i) If foreign interference is found in any U.S local election it may be included in the main or separate independent reports.
Section 1(f):
i) Within 30 days following the date of this order, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence shall develop a framework for the process that will be used to carry out their respective responsibilities pursuant to this order.
ii) The framework, which may be classified in whole or in part, shall focus on ensuring that agencies fulfill their responsibilities pursuant to this order in a manner that maintains methodological consistency; protects law enforcement or other sensitive information and intelligence sources and methods; maintains an appropriate separation between intelligence functions and policy and legal judgments; ensures that efforts to protect electoral processes and institutions are insulated from political bias; and respects the principles of free speech and open debate
SECTION 2: Basic Asset Freeze Requirements
Section 2(a):
i) All property in the U.S. or that come within the possession / control of any U.S. person of the persons listed below in Section 2(a)(i)(a) are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in:
a) Any foreign person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Homeland Security:
b) to have directly or indirectly engaged in, sponsored, concealed, or otherwise been complicit in foreign interference in a United States election,
c) to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, any activity described in subsection (a)(i) of this section or any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order; or
d) to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property or interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order.Section 2(b):
i) Executive Order 13694 of April 1, 2015, as amended by Executive Order 13757 of December 28, 2016, remains in effect.
Section 2(c):
i) Prohibitions is Section 2(a) apply except by statutes/orders issued later or licenses contracts issued prior to this order.
SECTION 3: Further Restrictions for Foreign Actor Involved
Section 3(a):
i) After the report/assessment is submitted:
a) Secretary of the Treasury in consultation with the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Homeland Security, shall impose all appropriate sanctions pursuant to section 2(a) & (b) of this order; and
ii) Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the heads of other appropriate agencies, shall jointly prepare a recommendation for the President as to whether additional sanctions against foreign persons may be appropriate.
iii) The recommendation shall include an assessment of the effect of the recommended sanctions on the economic and national security interests of the United States and its allies. Any recommended sanctions shall be calibrated to the scope of the foreign interference identified, and may include one or more of the following with respect to each targeted foreign person:
a) blocking / prohibiting all transactions in a person’s property interests in subject to U.S, jurisdiction;
b) export license restrictions;
c) prohibitions on United States financial institutions making loans or providing credit to a person;
d) restrictions on transactions in foreign exchange;
e) prohibitions on transfers of credit or payments;
f) prohibitions on U.S. persons investing in or purchasing equity or debt of a person;
g) exclusion of alien corporate officers from the U.S.;
h) imposition on a person’s alien principal executive officers of any of the sanctions described in this section; or
i) any other measures authorized by law.SECTION 4: Declaratory Statement for Donation Prohibitions that would Interfere with National Emergency Powers
Section 4: Making of donations of the type of articles specified in section 203(b)(2) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(2)) by, to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order would seriously impair my ability to deal with the national emergency declared in this order, and I hereby prohibit such donations as provided by section 2 of this order.
SECTION 5: Further Prohibitions
Section5:
i) Making any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order; and
ii) the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person
SECTION 6: Immigration Prohibitions
Section 6:
i) Unrestricted immigrant and nonimmigrant entry into the U.S. of aliens whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.
ii) Entry into the United States is suspended for above persons, as immigrants or nonimmigrants. Such persons shall be treated as persons covered by section 1 of Proclamation 8693 of July 24, 2011 (Suspension of Entry of Aliens Subject to United Nations Security Council Travel Bans and International Emergency Economic Powers Act Sanctions
SECTION 7: Prohibition Against Attempts at Evading this Order
Section 7(a):
i) Any transaction that evades or avoids, has the purpose of evading or avoiding, causes a violation of, or attempts to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited.
ii) Any conspiracy formed to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited
SECTION 8: Miscellaneous
This Section contains various standard legal definitions for person(s), entity(ies), foreign governments etc.
SECTION 9: No Notice Provision
Blocking of property and interests subject to this Order may be executed WITHOUT NOTICE in the interests of National Security and in keeping within the spirit of this Order.
SECTION 10: No Prohibitions for Conduct of Official Business
SECTION 11: Scope and Delegation of Authority Policy
Section 11:
i) Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General and Secretary of State, are authorized to take such actions, including the promulgation of rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to the President by IEEPA as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this order.
ii) Secretary of the Treasury may re-delegate any of these functions to other officers within the Department of the Treasury consistent with applicable law.
iii) All agencies of the U.S. Government are hereby directed to take all appropriate measures within their authority to carry out the provisions of this order.SECTION 12: Requirements of Report Submission to Congress
Section 12:
Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General and Secretary of State are authorized to submit the recurring and final reports to the Congress on the national emergency declared in this order, consistent with section 401(c) of the NEA (50 U.S.C. 1641(c)) and section 204(c) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1703(c)).
SECTION 13 & 14 Miscellaneous Boilerplate Provisions
September 12, 2018
