White House Turns Down Putin's Interrogation For Interrogation Request

Donald Trump has turned down Vladimir Putin's proposal to allow Russian investigators interview Americans suspected of crimes, but still expects 12 Russians blamed of election meddling to arrive in the US, the White House said.

"It is a proposal that was made in sincerity by President Putin, but President Trump disagrees with it. Hopefully President Putin will have the 12 identified Russians come to the United States to prove their innocence or guilt, " Sarah Sanders, White House spokeswoman, said in a statement.

On Thursday, the Senate approved the resolution, proposed by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) expressing the sense that the “United States should refuse to make available any current or former diplomat, civil servant, political appointee, law enforcement official or member of the Armed Forces of the United States for questioning by the government or Vladimir Putin."

BREAKING: Senate unanimously PASSES (98-0) a resolution expressing opposition to allowing Russia to interview US diplomats and agents, a proposal offered by Putin on Monday and rejected just this afternoon by the White House.

Here's the text of the resolution: pic.twitter.com/oB6aTxnYts

— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) July 19, 2018

Following the summit with Trump in Finland’s capital in Helsinki earlier this week, the Russian President said Moscow may consider allowing the US Justice Department investigators to question the Russian citizens, who were charged with meddling in the US election in 2016.

However, Putin specified that such interaction may only take place if the Washington greenlights Moscow to interrogate American citizens, who are suspected of committing crimes in Russia. The list of those wanted by the Russian law enforces includes US ambassador to the country, Michael McFaul, and financier, Bill Browder, according to Russia’s Prosecutor Generals’ Office.

The treaty between Moscow and Washington, signed in the 1990-ies and allowing the interrogation of the suspects from the other country, was brought up by Putin during the media conference in Helsinki.

You renounced your American citizenship in the ’90s and moved to London. Tell me about that decision?

My grandfather was an American Communist, and he married my grandmother, who was a Russian Communist. During the 1950s, the McCarthy era, my family was viciously persecuted. [When] my grandmother was dying of cancer…the U.S....wanted to deport her back to Russia. It just left a legacy of bad feeling about the rule of law. Things can swing wildly in the wrong direction from time to time. And in a certain way, we’re sort of seeing that right now.