US Senate warns White House: No Russian interrogation of American officials allowed
Iran Press TV
Fri Jul 20, 2018 05:25AM
The United States Senate has unanimously passed a resolution banning the questioning of any US official by Russia, in an explicit warning to US President Donald Trump, who earlier implicitly agreed to cooperate with Moscow on the interrogation of American officials before his staff walked back that notion.
The Senate on Thursday voted 98-0 to pass the non-binding but clearly-worded resolution, tabled by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Senators Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).
The resolution states that the US "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 of Vladimir Putin."
Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin one-on-one in Finland's capital of Helsinki on Monday.
With a series of remarks after that meeting, including during a joint press conference with Putin, Trump caused a ruckus at home, with Democrats and Republicans alike accusing the US president of having been outsmarted by Putin.
In one particularly controversial remark, Trump said he believed the Russian government did not interfere in the November 2016 US presidential election that saw him rise to the country's highest public office.
That remark was in sharp contrast to the conclusion of the US's own intelligence community – if not the public mood among many ordinary Americans.
"So I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial [of election meddling] today," Trump said.
Standing by Trump's side, Putin, too, denied the election meddling accusations, and offered to allow the team of special counsel Robert Mueller – who is conducting a probe of those allegations – to travel to Russia to question the 12 Russians recently indicted in the case if the US allows Russia in return to interrogate individuals in the US "who have something to do with illegal actions in the territory of Russia."
Trump seemed to relish that offer.
"What he (President Putin) did is an incredible offer. He offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators with respect to the 12 people. I think that's an incredible offer. OK?" he said at the Helsinki presser.
The White House then said the US president would consider the offer. But a reversal came on Thursday, as public furor rose over the matter.
'How did that even come to consciousness?'
Just hours later, the Senate passed the resolution.
Senators expressed shock at the initial reception of the offer.
"That President Trump would even consider handing over a former US ambassador to Putin and his cronies for interrogation is bewildering…This body must agree on the importance of protecting our ambassadors. We should pass it today, not wait, not show any equivocation," Schumer said ahead of the vote.
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said, "I have no idea how that's even come into consciousness."
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called the idea "absurd and naive."
Meanwhile, President Trump has invited his Russian counterpart to the US for a second summit, adding to the outcry.
Republicans are reportedly seeking to forestall a second Putin summit.
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