Is Trump’s Plan to Import Diesel From Russia Legal?

With his Republican Party facing the prospect of losing control of Congress in Nov. 3 elections, President Donald Trump has sought ways to tame a significant source of voter discontent: elevated fuel costs. Saying that lower prices for Americans were his “greatest priority,” Trump announced via social media on Oct. 9 that he’d struck a deal with President Vladimir Putin for Russia to supply the US and global market with diesel. Prices of the fuel have risen significantly in the US, mainly because of the Iran war, as shipments of refined oil products out of the Persian Gulf have been constrained.

Trump’s announcement alarmed the leaders of Ukraine and their supporters, who say revenue from energy exports helps finance Russia’s war against its neighbor. Apart from that, it raised a legal question: Does Trump have the authority to wave in Russian energy imports when US law forbids them?

What did the US and Russia agree to?

Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy assets had prompted Moscow to impose a ban on exports of most diesel, jet fuel and gasoline in July. But now, Putin says Russia is ready “to supply oil and petroleum products to the US and global markets,” according to the Kremlin. Trump has said Russia would supply about 2.2 million barrels of diesel fuel to the American and global marketplace, with more to come in the following months.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which administers and enforces US sanctions, on Oct. 9 issued a license to facilitate the diesel imports into the country. The license amounted to a waiver of US regulations that were the result of various sanctions on Russia imposed over the years.

So what’s the legal issue?

While the OFAC license waived away a number of sanctions, it appeared to leave standing a 2022 act passed by Congress and signed into law by then-President Joe Biden called the Ending Importation of Russian Oil Act.

The law bars the importation of Russian fuels, including diesel. Under it, the president can waive the prohibition, but only under specific circumstances that have not been met: After consulting with congressional committees, he must certify that Russia has agreed to withdraw its forces from and cease military hostilities in Ukraine and that Russia poses no immediate threat to any NATO member.

“President Trump’s decision to allow Russian diesel imports to the US runs directly counter to that law,” a bipartisan group of legislators on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said in a statement. Representative Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat from Texas, went further, saying Trump is “directly violating” federal law.

Peter Harrell, a visiting scholar at Georgetown’s Institute of International Economic Law, said while the administration is within its authority to override previous executive orders, he believes the Treasury waiver violates federal law. He said that if he were advising US energy companies about the announced imports, he “would recommend staying clear” of them.

Some lawmakers, including Senator Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, have said they don’t expect the diesel deal to go through.

Does Congress have recourse if the White House goes ahead with the deal?

Harrell, who wrote parts of a 2022 executive order barring certain Russian energy imports during his time serving then-President Joe Biden as senior director for international economics, said it was unlikely Congress or anyone else could stop the imports from happening.

The Justice Department under Trump is unlikely to prosecute alleged violations of the law, and customs officials are apt to allow the shipments to enter the US, Harrell said.

Congress could pass another bill to tighten the 2022 law to “make it clear there’s no way around it,” Harrell said. Trump would likely veto such a bill. In any case, Congress is in recess until Nov. 9. By the time it could act, “presumably whatever diesel cargo we’re talking about here will be unloaded,” Harrell said.