The U.S. Secret Service has denied it gave a green light to a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and Russian nationals in the run-up to the 2016 Presidential Elections, pouring cold water on suggestions made by President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Sunday.
Speaking on the ABC news program This Week Jay Sekulow, a member of the president’s legal team, alluded to Secret Service vetting of a June 2016 meeting between Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and the President’s son.
Read more: How Donald Trump Jr.’s Emails Have Cranked Up the Heat on His Family
“Well, I wonder why the Secret Service, if this was nefarious, why the Secret Service allowed these people in,” Sekulow said in response to questions about the meeting. “The President had Secret Service protection at this point, and that raised a question with me.”
But in an emailed response to Reuters, Mason Brayman, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said that that Trump Jr. was not under secret service protection in June. “We would not have screened anyone he was meeting with at that time,” Brayman said.
[Reuters]
- Meet TIME’s Newest Class of Next Generation Leaders
- After Visiting Both Ends of the Earth, I Realized How Much Trouble We’re In
- Google Is Making It Easier to Remove Personal Info From Search
- Oil Companies Posted Huge Profits. Here’s Where The Cash Will Go (Hint: Not Climate)
- Column: We Asked Hundreds of Americans About Abortion. Their Feelings Were Complicated
- A Short History of the Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of the Marcos Family
- Long-Lasting Birth Control Is Already Hard to Get. Advocates Worry It May Only Get Worse
- Who Should Be on the 2022 TIME100? Vote Now