Washington (CNN)Republican Sen. Rand Paul said Thursday that he plans to ask President Donald Trump to lift sanctions on members of the Russian legislature so that they are able to travel to the United States.
The Kentucky senator, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, invited the Russian lawmakers to the US capital during a trip to Moscow in early August. He told Fox News on Thursday that members of both houses of the Russian Federal Assembly have "agreed to come to Washington in the fall for further meetings."
"That's a good thing," Paul said. "The downside is the chairman of each of the committees is banned from coming to the United States because of sanctions. So one of the things I'm going to ask the President -- I'm going to talk to the President this weekend -- is I'm going to say, 'why don't we take people off the list who are in the legislature.'"
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Paul was among the most vocal Republican lawmakers to support the US President after Trump's news conference in Helsinki, Finland, with Putin. Trump was widely criticized by members of his own party for appearing to side with Putin over the US intelligence community's assessment that Russia interfered in the US presidential elections. Trump later said he misspoke, but Paul accused the President's critics of "Trump derangement syndrome."
"Any country that can spy does, and any country that can meddle in foreign elections does," Paul said on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer" last month. Paul continued, "All countries are doing this, but we've elevated this to a higher degree, and we've made this all about the sour grapes of Hillary Clinton losing the election, and it's all about partisan politics now. This is truly the Trump derangement syndrome that motivates all of this."
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/17/politics/rand-paul-russian-lawmakers-sanctions/