●Schenker at the Washington Institute: Jammal Trust sanctions timed after Moody's, and using the October 17 movement against Hezbollah

At a virtual Washington Institute panel on 12 May 2022 titled "Hezbollah, Shia Dynamics and Lebanon's Elections", on the eve of the parliamentary elections, the former assistant secretary of state David Schenker set out the Trump administration's policy: "We sanctioned Hezbollah's financial institutions like Jammal Trust Bank, and we were careful: we waited for Moody's to issue its rating that downgraded Lebanon, and the next day we pounced and sanctioned Jammal Trust; we were not responsible for the downgrade, and we raised the cost on Hezbollah's allies too", citing the sanctions on Gebran Bassil. He said he had visited Lebanon two or three times and met Shia businessmen and journalists opposed to Hezbollah, and that Washington could have done more to exploit Shia discontent with the party after the 2019 movement. He was pessimistic that the elections would change anything, and described many opposition candidates as "individualistic, self-centred, narcissistic".