WASHINGTON – A former U.S. ambassador to Russia is visiting the nation's capital in hopes of stopping any effort by Russians to interrogate Americans, including himself.
Michael McFaul was one of about a dozen Americans that Russians want to question in exchange for the questioning of targets of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
The White House, at first, said it was considering the proposal that was raised during a meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. It later put out a statement that shot down the idea.
McFaul said Monday on Twitter that he was heading to Washington and said while he believes there is a "low probability" that the Russian government would be able to get its hands on him, his hope is to make it "a zero probability event."
He said he plans to meet with "several US government officials to urge them to communicate with their Russian counterparts about the negative consequences of further harassing former US officials like me."
A White House official told USA TODAY that McFaul requested a meeting with the National Security Council and that "it was accepted out of courtesy."
The Washington Post reported McFaul will meet at the White House with Fiona Hill, a senior director on the National Security Council, who serves as Trump's top adviser on Russia.
Russia's interest in McFaul stems from his time as ambassador, a time when ties between the two countries deteriorated after the Obama administration attempted to "reset" the relationship.
He wrote a book on his tenure in Moscow and his contentious relationship with Putin, including when Obama signed into law the Magnitsky Act, named after Sergei Magnitsky, a tax accountant who died in prison after calling out fraud by Russian officials. The Magnitsky Act, which McFaul supported, imposed stiff sanctions on Moscow.
McFaul's book, "From Cold War to Hot Peace," details Kremlin attempts to discredit and harass him, with tactics that included dispatching protesters to his front gates and criticizing him on state media.
McFaul was named a "person of interest" by Russian prosecutors in their case against Bill Browder, an American citizen and associate of Magnitsky who had pushed for the passage of the law slapping sanctions on Russia.
Browder called the Russian investigation targeting him and others as a "crazy scheme."
WFXT
