Russia

Trump: ‘I Hadn’t Thought’ of Asking Putin to Extradite Indicted Russians

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The president says he has "low expectations" for his meeting with the Russian president but expects "nothing bad” will come out of it.

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Yuri Kadobnov/Pool via Reuters

President Trump says he has “low expectations” for his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday, but he’s already certain that “nothing bad is going to come out of it.” Speaking on CBS News’ Face the Nation on Sunday, Trump said that regardless of the results of the meeting, it will be a “good thing.” The president has pushed ahead with the meeting despite calls from some lawmakers to cancel it in the wake of special counsel Robert Mueller’s recent indictment against 12 Russian intelligence officials. Trump has promised to raise the issue of Moscow’s election meddling when he speaks with Putin, but most of his comments on the latest indictment have focused not on Russia, but on former President Barack Obama. “They were doing whatever it was during the Obama administration,” he told CBS News when asked about the indictment. Asked whether he might ask Putin to extradite the 12 indicted Russians, he said he “hadn’t thought of” it but “might.”