--- title: White House Doesn't Rule Out Putin's Offer to Help Mueller description: The White House declined to rule out Russian President Vladimir Putin's offer of assistance in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe. canonical: https://time.com/5342323/white-house-putin-mueller/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-07-18T20:32:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T09:34:51.046Z article:section: Politics og:title: White House Declines to Rule Out Putin's Offer of Assistance og:description: Putin said he would let U.S. prosecutors question Russian nationals og:url: https://time.com/5342323/white-house-putin-mueller/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt032465043b933142/698935a722fb8567f6e262fd/gettyimages-1001252388.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders Holds Briefing at White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House Declines to Rule Out Putin's Offer of Assistance twitter:description: Putin said he would let U.S. prosecutors question Russian nationals twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt032465043b933142/698935a722fb8567f6e262fd/gettyimages-1001252388.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House Declines to Rule Out Vladimir Putin's Offer of Assistance in Mueller Probe > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=e2f62e23-8d0e-4ef3-9189-f8474d4f8264&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Both Trump and Putin Just Denied Russian Meddling in the 2016 Election. Here's What They Said [Watch (HLS stream): Both Trump and Putin Just Denied Russian Meddling in the 2016 Election. Here's What They Said](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/cWwhbNrF.m3u8) (2:38)  _Published 2018-07-16. Trump resisted when asked Monday to condemn Russian meddling in the election. Instead, he complained about a Democratic National Committee computer server and emails belonging to Hillary Clinton, the Democrat he defeated to win the presidency._  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Jul 18, 2018 8:32 PM UTC Trump resisted when asked Monday to condemn Russian meddling in the election. Instead, he complained about a Democratic National Committee computer server and emails belonging to Hillary Clinton, the Democrat he defeated to win the presidency.  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Jul 18, 2018 8:32 PM UTC The White House on Wednesday declined to rule out Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer of assistance in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, with Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying an announcement would come when President Trump has reached a decision on the matter. “The President’s \[going to\] meet with his team and we’ll let you know when we have an announcement on that,” Sanders told reporters during the daily press briefing, her first in over a week. When pressed again, Sanders acknowledged that Putin and Trump had discussed the offer during the summit in Helsinki, Finland, but said that no decision had been reached. Speaking at a joint press conference with Trump on Monday, Putin offered to allow members of Mueller’s team into Russia to interrogate the 12 Russian nationals recently indicted for interfering in U.S. elections. But Putin said America had to reciprocate by allowing Russian law enforcement to question people they deemed suspicious in the U.S. Putin specifically mentioned British financier Bill Browder on Monday as one of the possible subjects of such questioning. Browder was refused entry into Russia in 2005, and now works as an activist investigating Russian state corruption. Browder wrote [in an op-ed for TIME](http://time.com/5340545/bill-browder-vladimir-putin-magnitsky-act-donald-trump/) after the press conference that it didn’t matter that Putin was extending the offer to Trump, because, as a citizen of the United Kingdom, he falls under the jurisdiction of British Prime Minister Theresa May. But on Tuesday, the Russian attorney general’s office said it was poised [to send the U.S.](https://sputniknews.com/russia/201807171066437215-russia-browder-us-mcfaul-questioning/) a list of people it wants to question in relation to Browder, including former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul. ## Transcript [00:00] Once again president Trump mentioned the issue of [00:04] the so called interference of Russia when the American [00:07] elections. And I had to literate things [00:12] I said several times including during out personal [00:15] context that the Russian state has never interfered and [00:18] it's not going to interfere Into internal American affairs, [00:22] including election process. During today's meeting, I [00:25] addressed directly with President Putin the issue of [00:27] Russian interference in our elections. I felt this was [00:32] a message best delivered in person, spent a great [00:36] deal of time talking about it. And President Putin [00:40] may very well want to address it and very [00:45] strongly. Because he feels very strongly about it and he [00:47] has an interesting idea. To say it one time again and I [00:50] say it all the time, there was no collusion. I didn't even [00:54] know the President. There was nobody to collude with. [00:59] There was no collusion with the campaign and every [01:01] time you hear these you know all of these twelve and [01:03] fourteen and frankly they admit these [01:07] are not people involved in the campaign. But to the [01:11] average reader maybe it does. It [01:15] doesn't. I think that the probe is a disaster [01:19] for our country. I think it's kept us apart. It's kept us [01:23] separated. There was no collusion at all. Everybody [01:27] knows it. People are being brought out to the floor. So [01:32] far, that I know, virtually none of it related to the [01:35] campaign. And they're gonna have to try really hard to [01:37] find somebody that did relate to the campaign. It was [01:40] a clean campaign. Zero collusion. And it has had [01:44] a negative impact upon the relationship of the two [01:48] largest nuclear powers in the world. We have 90 % of [01:53] nuclear power between the two countries. It's [01:56] ridiculous, it's ridiculous what's going on with the [01:59] probe. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5342323/white-house-putin-mueller/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5342323/white-house-putin-mueller/"},"headline":"White House Declines to Rule Out Vladimir Putin's Offer of Assistance in Mueller Probe","datePublished":"2018-07-18T20:32:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-12T09:34:51.046Z","description":"Putin said he would let U.S. prosecutors question Russian nationals","url":"https://time.com/5342323/white-house-putin-mueller/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt032465043b933142/698935a722fb8567f6e262fd/gettyimages-1001252388.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt032465043b933142/698935a722fb8567f6e262fd/gettyimages-1001252388.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders Holds Briefing at White House","caption":"Sarah Sanders speaks to reporters in a news conference","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5342323/white-house-putin-mueller/","name":"White House Declines to Rule Out Vladimir Putin's Offer of Assistance in Mueller Probe"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Both Trump and Putin Just Denied Russian Meddling in the 2016 Election. 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