Hillary Clinton chastised the White House on Thursday for not immediately ruling out Russia’s request to interrogate and prosecute former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul.
Russia has accused McFaul, along with investor Bill Browder, both of whom have been highly critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin, of committing crimes while in the country.
“Ambassador @McFaul is a patriot who has spent his career standing up for America. To see the White House even hesitate to defend a diplomat is deeply troubling,” Clinton tweeted.
[Also read: Military veterans divided over Trump’s Russia comments]
Ambassador @McFaul is a patriot who has spent his career standing up for America. To see the White House even hesitate to defend a diplomat is deeply troubling. https://t.co/gI8K8Tjg3M
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 19, 2018
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Wednesday that President Trump is considering Putin’s request.
“The president’s going to meet with his team and we’ll let you know when we have an announcement on that,” she said. “There was some conversation about it, but there wasn’t a commitment made on behalf of the United States and the president will work with his team and we’ll let you know if there’s an announcement on that front.”
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert shot down the idea, calling it “absolutely absurd.”
Putin proposed Monday during a joint press conference with Trump, that the U.S. allow Russia to interview Americans in exchange for Russia allowing American officials to interview the 12 Russian officials indicted Friday on charges of engaging “in a sustained effort” to break into computers owned by Democrats in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
