Hillary lashes out at Trump over refusal to rule out letting Putin's goons question former ambassador to Russia over fraud

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Hillary Clinton weighed in to condemn a proposal floated by Russian President Vladimir Putin to let his own investigators interrogate American intelligence officials and diplomats that the White House has refused to rule out.

Clinton defended former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, who clashed with Kremlin authorities during his tenure and who the Kremlin wants to probe during the bizarre deal, as a patriot.

Clinton and tweeted her opposition to the proposal after Trump called it an 'interesting' idea and White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders did not reject it out of hand.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned a proposal floated by Russian President Vladimir Putin and not ruled out by the White House to let his own investigators interrogate American intelligence officials and diplomats

'Ambassador @McFaul is a patriot who has spent his career standing up for America. To see the White House even hesitate to defend a diplomat is deeply troubling,' Clinton tweeted.

Under the Putin proposal that the White House is entertaining, the U.S. would allow Russian investigators to interrogate perceived critics of his regime. At the same time, special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators would get to sit in on interrogations of 12 Russian spies that have been indicted for hacking Demoratic emails during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Clinton also trolled Trump in advance of his Putin summit. ''Great World Cup. Question for President Trump as he meets Putin: Do you know which team you play for?' she asked

GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Russia critic who has grown close to Trump, on Thursday said the idea was absurd because Russia is not a 'rule of law' state. 

The State Department said Wednesday the 'Russian assertions are absurd.' 

Clinton, who has variously blamed former FBI Director James Comey and Russia for her loss to Trump, also trolled Trump in advance of his Helsinki summit.

'Great World Cup. Question for President Trump as he meets Putin: Do you know which team you play for?' she asked.

Then on the day of the summit, where Trump refused to criticize Putin and praised his 'powerful' claim not to have interfered in the election, Clinton tweeted: 'Well, no we know.' 

President Trump called the interrogation proposal, which Putin voiced in response to a question about whether he would extradite 12 Russian intelligence officer accused of hacking the 2016 presidential election, an 'incredible offer.'

But those who Putin apparently wants to interrogate, including McFaul, and financier and British citizen William Browder, expressed astonishment at the proposal.  

'He said it was an interesting idea he didn't commit to anything,' said White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, who didn't rule out Vladimir Putin's idea

'He said it was an interesting idea he didn't commit to anything,' said White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, when asked about the potential exchange with Putin.

As described by Putin, Russian investigators would interview Russian intelligence officers charged in an indictment with hacking into Demoratic servers and email accounts. 

Sanders said the administration would 'determine whether there is any validity that would be helpful to the process.'

But she indicated the administration and the president had not committed to it. 'We've committed to nothing. It was an idea that they threw out,' Sanders said.

THAT'S INCREDIBLE: President Trump called it an 'incredible offer,' but prosecutors likely want to conduct their own interviews of Russian spies charged with conspiracy

As part of the proposal, special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators could travel to Russia to witness – but not take part in – interrogations of the 12 indicted Russians named in the indictment, Putin said. Russian investigators would do the questioning, an outsourcing of the investigatory process that the FBI does not usually accept.  

Sanders also acknowledged she did not believe there was a recording of Trump's one-on-one with Putin, making it more difficult to assess anything that might have been agreed to.

Browder, who helped push through the Magnitsky Act that is reviled by Putin because of its sanctions on Russians, told Fox News: 'POTUS doesn't have jurisdiction over me bc I'm a British citizen.He'd have to discuss that w/ [Britsh Prime Minister] #Theresa May & I don't think she'd be too happy about turning me over to #Putin.'

Russia's Vladimir Putin offered to have Russian law enforcement interrogate alleged Russian spies in Russia – and U.S. President Donald Trump called it an 'incredible offer'

President Donald Trump has been under fire from Russia critics since his Helsinki meeting with Vladimir Putin

Putin said special counsel Robert Mueller's team could observe the interrogations – but Americans would have to be made subject to interrogations, too

Sergie was Browder's lawyer who died in a Russian prison after uncovering what he said was a multimillion fraud.

Putin went after Browder during his side-by-side press conference with Trump, though Moscow.    

'Business associates of Mr. Browder have earned over one and a half billion dollars in Russia. They never paid any taxes, neither in Russian army in the United States and yet the money escaped the country, they were transferred to the United States,' Putin said.

'They sent huge amount of money - $400 million - as a contribution to the campaign of Hillary Clinton,' he claimed. Browder told CNBC the claim was false. He later tweeted that the Kremlin said Putin meant to say $400,000, although Browder says the correct amount is zero.

State-funded Sputnik Russian media reported that Russian prosecutors want to question former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul as part of the case against Browder, the former head of Hermitage Capital Management. They also want for questioning National Security Agency Todd Hyman, as well as Svetlana Engert and Alexander Shvartsman, who Sputnik calls Browder's 'handler.'

McFaul responded to the idea by tweeting: 'Go where? To Russia?! I'm banned from traveling to Russia. The Trump administration needs to get on the record right now and push back on these requests. There is NO equivalency between the Russian harassment of @BillBrowder and the Mueller indictment. Say that now @StateDept,' he wrote, using the Twitter handle of the U.S. State Department.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told his US counterpart: 'The time has to come to talk in a substantive way'

Putin responded to the idea of extraditing 12 Russians accused of interfering in the presidential election by having his own investigators interrogate them in Russia.

Putin would, however, allow U.S. prosecutors to watch.

Putin referenced a joint treaty agreement between the U.S. and Russia, and threw out the idea at a bizarre press conference with President Donald Trump where Trump appeared to accept his 'strong' denial of Russian meddling in the U.S. elections.

Putin even said special counsel Robert Mueller, whose team continues to rack up guilty pleas and announced Monday it had arrested a Russian in Washington, D.C., could send U.S. officials to witness the interviews. 

He said Mueller could 'send a formal and official request' and that Russia's own law enforcement would interrogate the alleged hackers, mostly intelligence officers in the G.R.U.

He pitched the idea when asked if he would extradite 12 Russian spies accused of hacking Democrats during the campaign to the U.S. where they could face trial. 

'Moreover, we can meet you halfway,' Putin said. 'We can make another step. We can actually permit official representatives of the United States, including the members of this very commission headed by Mr. Mueller, we can lead them into the country and they will be present for this questioning,' Putin said.

Trump called it '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? Thank you,' Trump said. 

But the Putin proposed 'another condition' that he attached.

He brought up William Browder, a financier who crusaded for the Magnitsky Act, which slaps sanctions on Russians, following the death in prison of his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky after uncovering an alleged ponzi scheme.

'For instance, we can bring up Mr. Browder in this particular case,' Putin said.

Trump also called the idea 'interesting.' 

'I addressed directly (the question of) Russian interference in our elections. We spent a great deal of time talking about it. He feels strongly about the issue and has an interesting idea,' Trump said.

 Putin couched his response in the terminology of the rule of law.

'There is the issue of trying a case in the court and the final say is for the court to deliver,' Putin said. He said they were 'individuals' not acting on behalf of the Russian government or on his own orders, as prosecutors charge.

'We are now talking about the private individuals and not about the particular states. And as far as the most recent allegations is concerned about the Russian intelligence officers, we do have an intergovernmental treaty,' he said.

'Please do send us the request,' Putin suggested. 

'We will analyze it properly and we will send a formal response. And as I said we can extend this cooperation. But we should do it on a reciprocal basis because we would await our Russian counterparts to provide us access to the persons of interest for us, who we believe can have something to do with intelligences,' he said.

'Let's discuss the specific issues and not use the Russia and the U.S. relationship as a loose change, for this internal political struggle,' Putin said.