Trump-Putin 'conversation' about Russian interrogation of US diplomat prompts outrage, astonishment

At this week's summit in Helsinki, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed what President Donald Trump described as an "incredible offer" - the Kremlin would give special counsel Robert Mueller access to interviews with Russians indicted for hacking Democrats in 2016. In return, Russia would be allowed to question certain U.S. officials it suspects of interfering in Russian affairs.

One of those U.S. officials is former U.S. ambassador to Moscow, Michael McFaul, a nemesis of the Kremlin because of his criticisms of Russia's human rights record and support for sanctions against the country under the Magnitsky Act.

On Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to rule out the Kremlin's request to question McFaul and other Americans. Asked during the daily press briefing if President Donald Trump is open to the idea of having McFaul questioned by Russia, Sanders said President Donald Trump is "going to meet with his team" to discuss the offer.

"There was some conversation about it," between Trump and Putin, Sanders said, "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."

The willingness of the White House to even contemplate handing over a former U.S. ambassador for interrogation by the Kremlin drew ire and astonishment from current and former U.S. officials. So did the notion that the president even thought he has the legal authority to do so.

Former Secretary of State John Kerry tweeted that the offer was "not something that should require a half second of consultation. Dangerous."

"The administration needs to make it unequivocally clear that in a million years this wouldn't be under consideration, period. Full stop," Kerry tweeted.

Allowing such questioning of Americans, particularly of a former ambassador who had diplomatic protections while in Moscow, would be an extraordinary move on the part of the Trump administration, experts and officials said.

"The entire country should be aware of this," tweeted Tom Nichols, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College and the Harvard Extension School. "If Putin can single out" McFaul, Nichols said, "he can single out anyone. The President's job is to protect us, not to even consider handing any of us over to an enemy government."

Even the State Department considers the idea "absolutely absurd, as State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said during a briefing when asked about the Russian government's desire to question 11 American citizens, including McFaul.

"We do not stand by those assertions that the Russian Government makes," Nauert said, acknowledging that the interrogation of American officials "would be a grave concern to our former colleagues here."

Nauert added that a U.S. federal court rejected Russian allegations against the British businessman at the center of the Kremlin's request, Bill Browder.

Back in the mid-2000s, Kremlin officials accused Browder of a tax fraud scheme involving investments in Russia. After the death in a Russian prison of Browder's lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, Browder lobbied for the Magnitsky Act, which imposed sanctions on Russians accused of human rights violations. Russia later charged Browder with tax evasion in absentia.

When President Barack Obama signed the Magnitsky Act into law in 2012, McFaul - then the U.S. ambassador to Russia - supported the move.

Speaking to NBC's Lester Holt at the Aspen Security Forum on Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Putin's request to interrogate Americans is "certainly not high on our list of investigative techniques."

McFaul, a Hoover fellow at Stanford University and the director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, responded to the White House message forcefully on Twitter.

"I hope the White House corrects the record and denounces in categorical terms this ridiculous request from Putin," McFaul, who served as U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, wrote. "Not doing so creates moral equivalency" between a legitimate "US indictment of Russian intelligence officers and a crazy, completely fabricated story invented by Putin."

"When Trump says Russia is no longer targeting America, that's not how this American feels," McFaul also tweeted. "Putin is most certainly targeting and intimidating me. And I'm an American."

Many U.S. lawmakers and former diplomatic officials came to McFaul's defense on Twitter, and the hashtag #ProtectMcFaul was trending late Wednesday.

"Let's recall why Putin began making outrageous, false accusations against @McFaul," tweeted Samantha Power, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. "Mike stood up for human rights and against Russian oppression. That terrified Putin. The fact that @realDonaldTrump won't stand up for an American patriot is a travesty."

Susan Rice, Obama's national security adviser, described the White House's statement regarding Putin's request "Beyond outrageous."

"Amb. McFaul served our country honorably and with full diplomatic immunity," Rice tweeted. "If the White House cannot defend and protect our diplomats, like our service members, they are serving a hostile foreign power not the American people."

Speaking to CNN's Don Lemon on Wednesday, James Clapper, former director of national intelligence, described the potential of such an exchange with Putin as "crazy."

"I've never heard of such a thing," Clapper said. "To turn over any U.S. citizen, particularly a former ambassador, for the Russians to interrogate him? You've got to be kidding."

"No 'consultation' is needed to make clear that U.S. will never cooperate in Putin's crusade against Bill Browder or former U.S. officials, like Ambassador McFaul. @McFaulserved his country honorably. His freedom is not up for negotiation or to be offered up as a gift to Putin," Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., wrote on Twitter.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., suggested that turning over McFaul for questioning would be grounds for impeaching Trump.

"Take this to the bank, @realDonaldTrump: you turn over former U.S. Ambassador @McFaul to Putin, you can count on me and millions others to swiftly make you an ex-president," Swalwell tweeted.

"There's no reason we would open up our evidence files, send our investigators over there to let them review that," Swalwell also told CNN's Erin Burnett. "That would be like a victim allowing the burglar to set up the home security system. That's ridiculous."

"This is so ludicrous it staggers my mind," tweeted Steven L. Hall, former CIA Chief of Russian Operations.

Harry Litman, a former federal prosecutor, challenged the president's power to hand any U.S. citizen over to the Russians. "How exactly does the President figure he can go about turning over Michael McFaul, a private citizen, to the Russians? Just order him to go to Moscow? Talk about broad theories of executive power," he tweeted.

The White House's "conversation" regarding Putin's proposal also raised the question of whether Trump would have the authority to allow Russia to interrogate a former ambassador.

First, McFaul was protected with full diplomatic immunity during his time as ambassador. If Secretary of State Mike Pompeo waves this protection, "he'll lose all support inside his building," tweeted Brian P. McKeon, former Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.

Second, the U.S. doesn't have an extradition treaty with Russia. Even if it did, a country seeking extradition of a U.S. citizen has to justify its request through the Justice Department and the U.S. Courts.

The U.S. does have a mutual legal assistance treaty with "which requires the offense to be a crime in both countries," McKeon explained. It also allows a party to decline requests that are deemed to involve political crimes, and "there is of course no comparison" between the Justice Department's indictment of the Russian agents and any accusations against McFaul," McKeon argued.