Russia and Putin · First term · № 43
Called Putin's proposal to question Americans in return for access to indicted Russians 'an incredible offer'
“And what he did is an incredible offer; he offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators with respect to the 12 people. I think that's an incredible offer.”
- Said
- , Joint news conference with Vladimir Putin, Helsinki, Finland
- Subject
- Putin's questioning offer
- Type
- Intelligence and security
- Topic
- Elections
- Era
- First term
What happened
At Helsinki, Putin said Russia could let U.S. investigators be present when it questioned the 12 Russians indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, on condition that Russian law enforcement could in turn question Americans, and he named associates of financier Bill Browder. Trump called it 'an incredible offer'. Russian authorities then named Americans they wanted to question, including former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul. On July 18, press secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump would 'meet with his team' on the idea and that no commitment had been made. On July 19 the White House said the proposal 'was made in sincerity by President Putin, but President Trump disagrees with it'. The Senate voted 98-0 the same day for a resolution that no current or former U.S. official should be made available to Putin's government for interrogation.