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White House Considers Allowing Russia to Interview U.S. Citizens

HeadlineJul 19, 2018

This comes as the White House said it won’t rule out a request by Vladimir Putin to have the Russian government question former U.S. diplomatic personnel on U.S. soil—including former ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul. Critics have blasted the Trump administration’s proposal as an assault on the principle of diplomatic immunity. It came as part of a proposal by Putin that would allow U.S. investigators to interview 12 Russians named in an indictment by special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation earlier this month, claiming they were part of a plot to interfere in the 2016 election. In exchange, Russian investigators would be granted interviews in the U.S. with Ambassador McFaul and 10 other Americans, including Bill Browder, an outspoken opponent of Putin. In 2009, Browder’s lawyer and accountant, the Russian whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky, died in a Russian jail under suspicious circumstances. His death became the basis of a U.S. sanctions law against Russia, the Magnitsky Act.

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