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White House weighs Putin proposal on questioning U.S. officials


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White House weighs Putin proposal on questioning U.S. officials

By Roberta Rampton and Lesley Wroughton

 

2018-07-19T013332Z_1_LYNXMPEE6I02F_RTROPTP_4_USA-RUSSIA-SUMMIT.JPG

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during their news conference in Helsinki, Finland July 16, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Wednesday declined to rule out accepting a Russian proposal for the questioning in the United States of Americans sought by the Kremlin for "illegal activities," including a former U.S. ambassador to Moscow.

 

The proposal arose at Monday's summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and any decision by Washington to assist with an adversary's prosecution of former government employees overseas would be a stunning shift in U.S. policy, especially as it could violate the international legal principle of diplomatic immunity.

 

"The president is going to meet with his team and we'll let you know when we have an announcement on that," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told a news briefing. Sanders added that Trump "said it was an interesting idea ... He wants to work with his team and determine if there is any validity that would be helpful to the process."

 

Putin suggested at the Helsinki summit that he would let U.S. investigators be present for questioning of 12 Russian intelligence officers charged last Friday on allegations they carried out cyber attacks to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election if Russians could do the same in America for people connected to money manager Bill Browder, a onetime investor in Russia. Browder has said he helped expose corruption in Russia.

 

Putin accused Browder of making campaign contributions to Trump's election rival Hillary Clinton with money he earned in Russia on which he did not pay taxes. Putin said U.S. intelligence officers helped Browder.

 

On Wednesday, the Russian Prosecutor General's office listed Americans it wants to question for "illegal activities," including Michael McFaul, who was U.S. ambassador to Russia during the Obama administration and is now at Stanford University in California.

 

It also named other former U.S. officials, including someone it described as a former intelligence officer, Russia's state-operated RIA news agency reported.

 

At a joint news conference with Trump in Helsinki, Putin referred to a treaty with the United States governing legal assistance each country can provide the other in criminal cases, which, according to its text, would not necessarily require that Russians be allowed to directly pose questions on American soil and vice versa.

 

Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray was dismissive of the proposal. "I never want to say never about anything, but it's certainly not high on our list of investigative techniques," he told the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.

 

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert called the Russian allegations "absolutely absurd."

 

"The prosecutor general in Russia is well aware that the United States has rejected Russian allegations in this regard," Nauert told a briefing.

 

McFaul told Reuters he has contacted Stanford lawyers. He denied Russia's accusations and expressed deep concern that the White House failed to defend him.

 

"It's crazy and should be called crazy and outrageous, not just by me, but by the U.S. government," McFaul said.

 

McFaul said the White House, by considering the request, was "assigning moral equivalence between a legitimate indictment of Russian intelligence officers ... to a cockamamie fantasy (from Moscow) with no basis in reality."

 

Browder said on Fox Business Network that it was "just shocking" for Trump's spokeswoman to say they were considering letting Russia question U.S. officials.

 

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton and Lesley Wroughton; additional reporting by Phil Stewart and Jonathan Landay; editing by Yara Bayoumy, Mary Milliken, Grant McCool)

 
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-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-07-19
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1 hour ago, webfact said:

The White House on Wednesday declined to rule out accepting a Russian proposal for the questioning in the United States of Americans sought by the Kremlin for "illegal activities," including a former U.S. ambassador to Moscow.

 

Traitor Trump is now willing to sacrifice a US Ambassador to appease a foreign power. How many US citizens will Traitor Trump no longer protect in order to fulfill his own personal agenda? US Ambassadors (or any US citizen) can no longer count on their own government to protect them. The president's first duty is to protect US citizens! If Traitor Trump is willing to toss any US citizen aside as he see fit, then he is being derelict in his duties and needs to be removed from office.

 

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11 minutes ago, Silurian said:

How many US citizens will Traitor Trump no longer protect in order to fulfill his own personal agenda?

 

Oh, oh, oh, I know...

 

 

Up to, and including 65,845,063?

 

2016 Presidential Election
Candidate    Party    Popular Votes
Donald J. Trump    Republican    62,980,160
Hillary R. Clinton    Democratic    65,845,063
Gary Johnson    Libertarian    4,488,931
Jill Stein    Green    1,457,050

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Okay, so can the guns, law and anti-immigrant crowd provide us their spin on how handing over American citizens and civil servants to be directly questioned by the KGB makes America great again? 

And if you wouldn't mind, please check your grammar and spelling when you do, don't want to hear later how you meant to say the opposite of what you actually said. Or was that video fake news?

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Some optimists thought Trump hit bottom couple of days ago, but I didn't think so and was vindicated!

When Trump hits bottom, he starts digging!

To even "weigh" this is an affront to all Americans, Trump base included. Seems it should be a no brainer, even for a no brainer.

It is like low life neighbor telling you he wants to have sex with your 14 year old daughter.

Do you say "Let me go home and weigh that proposal"?

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So here's the deal:  Trump provides names of political opponents, say, Pelosi or McCain or Flake or Mueller or whoever.  Putin creates an espionage charge out of thin air, Trump sends them over for interrogation, and they're sent to the Gulag, never to be heard of again.  In return, Trump lifts all sanctions on Russia and drops all charges against Russians accused of cyberwarfare.  Farfetched?  Trump will get the Dictator power he's always wanted. 

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3 hours ago, pegman said:

Wonder how much $$$ a head he sold them out for?

 

Who knows what deals Turmp made behind closed doors; he probably gave Alaska back to the Russians after Putin agreed to rename it Trumpistan. Seward's De-Folly.

 

On the plus side, probably worth it just to be rid of Sarah Palin.

 

 

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32 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

 

Who knows what deals Turmp made behind closed doors; he probably gave Alaska back to the Russians after Putin agreed to rename it Trumpistan. Seward's De-Folly.

 

On the plus side, probably worth it just to be rid of Sarah Palin.

 

 

And she really will be able to see Russia from her window.  Whether looking in or out of it.

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Ambassador McFaul had diplomatic immunity. Whatever "crimes" he committed, the most severe penalty that any other nation can impose is to expel him. For the Trump administration to consider handing over one of our own diplomats is, at best, a sign of ignorance. At worst, sinister, traitorous motive, as others have said above.

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5 hours ago, pegman said:

Wonder how much $$$ a head he sold them out for? No worries, the Cult over Country crowd are still with him.

That's a good one, Cult over Country. Mind if I use it?

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42 minutes ago, Jonmarleesco said:

Countries and their representatives have been taking the p__s with the idea of diplomatic immunity for years.

And of course you can count on diplomats to serve willingly and without fear even in nations like Russia where the law is what Putin says it is. And to contemplate happily the prospect of being delivered back into a strongman's hands so he can administer his own special brand of justice.

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Ahh Donald,Donald?<deleted> donald are you nuts?crazy?do you want to get impeached why don’t you just quit I do think he is crazy,needs to be removed ASAP has a great defense at his trial for treason insanity 

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5 hours ago, joecoolfrog said:

Putin cultivates Nationalism and presents a strong man image. It is laughable to think he would ever hand over one of his own .

Trump is either being played or has his nuts in a vice , not a good position for the US.

What surprises me is that it was a former ambassador being sent to Vlad first. I had been  expecting Trump to arrange to send daughter Tiffany to marry now divorced Putin. You know, so as to strengthen the ties between their mafia families and the 2 nations.

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15 hours ago, webfact said:

Putin accused Browder of making campaign contributions to Trump's election rival Hillary Clinton with money he earned in Russia on which he did not pay taxes.

 

....and we know how DT feels about income taxes!  :laugh:

 

The is the second mention of letting Russians into the US legal apparatus this week.  Making America great again by letting the Russians handle things.  

 

 

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14 hours ago, Silurian said:

 

Traitor Trump is now willing to sacrifice a US Ambassador to appease a foreign power. How many US citizens will Traitor Trump no longer protect in order to fulfill his own personal agenda? US Ambassadors (or any US citizen) can no longer count on their own government to protect them. The president's first duty is to protect US citizens! If Traitor Trump is willing to toss any US citizen aside as he see fit, then he is being derelict in his duties and needs to be removed from office.

 

In the end this will not happen and everyone knows that.  This is just part of the news cycle.

 

What this whole thing shows, however, is just how much each side attempts to interfere in the other's business. Surely Russia suspects US individuals of attempting to cause trouble in their internal affairs. What is so unexpected to me is that anyone in America is surprised that the Russians would do what they did in hacking the emails of the DNC, etc.  It's known that they also attempted to do so to the RNC as well.  In reading the indictment it also seems that in some ways the Russians were kind of sloppy in not concealing the trail better.  It also makes one wonder just how the Mueller team (FBI, etc.) was able to track all this without hacking into computers outside the USA such at the one in Malaysia.  If they obtain all the information lawfully fine but it makes one wonder how they followed the trail all the way back to specific GRU units it a totally "lawful" manner.  It shouldn't be any surprise that the NSA, DIA, CIA are hacking into computers in other countries, listening to communications and reading emails of foreign governments, banking, business. They will call it defensive in nature but they are also offensively obtaining information anyway they can get it. The bigger issue seems to be that the GRU leaked their information through DCLeaks website causing havoc in DNC.  The American people should be happy to see what really goes on behind closed doors in the political parties.  It's the Bernie Sanders supporters that should be outraged. I think the Democrats' outrage is about the fact that it happened to the DNC and not the RNC.  I find the reaction on the left somewhat humorous.  The Chinese hack into computers of the Office of Personnel Management and steal information relating to over 20 million Americans and after a couple of weeks the news cycle drops the story.  So where is the continued outrage against the Chinese government.  Nowhere to be seen. The Dems loose an election and need to blame it on somebody so the Russian hack has become a major story for 1 1/2 years.  Get over it and move on.  The main focus should be on preventing future hacking.  The intelligence community readily admits there are numerous attempted hacks everyday from around the world.  It's going to happen again and the US intelligence agencies are doing it too.  There is no righteousness for anybody regarding this issue.   There is nothing put into electronic media, stored on a computer or the "cloud" that can't be hacked. It seems to be a fact of life in the 21st Century.  Might as well get used to it.

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In a rare moment the Senate grew some gonads and passed a resolution, 98-0, against a foreign power being allowed to interrogate US citizens.  Too bad they didn't pass a censure resolution along with it , but there was suddenly a chill in the air and their private parts shrunk back to normal size!

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4 hours ago, Trouble said:

In the end this will not happen and everyone knows that.

 

Well, both the president and his spokesperson, Sarah Huckabilly Sanders, thought that this was an interesting idea and that it was being considered.

 

Only when there was massive pushback did the WH do an about-face.

 

 

 

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oh bit of waterboarding coming up Putin to oversee transparency at guantanamo bay i presume? he will get to the bottom of the americans and ambassadors conspiracy cia fbi all next! fully endorsed by trump administration. 555 

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