Financier Bill Browder, who lobbied for 2012 sanctions against Russia after the death of his Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in prison, Wednesday called President Donald Trump's consideration of letting Moscow investigators grill him akin to "treason."
In an interview on Fox News' "The Story With Martha MacCallum," Browder, now a citizen of Britain, said he was heartened by the State Department calling the idea "absurd."
"That by itself doesn't make me feel better because the president of the United States is still 'considering it,'" Browder said, however.
Putin raised the idea in his summit with President Donald Trump on Monday, suggesting special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators could come to Russia to question the two dozen Russians who have been charged with interfering in the 2016 presidential election in return for the United States allowing Russian investigators to question Browder and others whom Moscow considers "fugitives."
Trump called the notion an "interesting idea" during his press conference with Putin in Helsinki, Finland.
"The idea that the White House, that Donald Trump would be considering handing these people over, and me over, to the Russians is just appalling," Browder told MacCallum. "It's effectively treason to hand over patriotic people who have been trying to do the right thing, and they better come out quickly and walk that one back; otherwise, this is truly a litmus test for the Trump administration."
Browder said it appeared his case was discussed in the one-on-one meeting between Trump and Putin in Helsinki on Monday.
"The Russian government has made a very clear announcement, saying 'here's a list of people' that they want to interrogate in the United States, and it consists of me" and others, including Michael McFaul, the former U.S. ambassador to Russia.
"This has been something that Putin has been sort of peddling through different mediums for a long time and has now just reached his own mouth to the ears of the most powerful man in the free world, Donald Trump," he said.
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