The U.S. Secret Service said, Sunday that Donald Trump Jr. was not under protection during his meeting with a Russian lawyer in June 2016, in response to a suggestion from President Trump’s personal lawyer that it had screened the meeting between Trump Jr. and Russians during the 2016 campaign, Politco reports.
According to Reuters, in a statement, Secret Service spokesman Mason Brayman said, “Donald Trump, Jr. was not a protectee of the USSS as at June 2016. Thus we would not have screened anyone he was meeting with at that time”. Jay Sekulow, One of President Trump’s personal lawyers asked on ABC NEWS “This Week”, why the Secret Service allowed Trump Jr. to meet Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.
Sekulow said, “Well, I wonder why the Secret Service, if this was nefarious, why the Secret Service allowed these people in. The president had Secret Service protection at that point, and that raised a question with me”.
Son of the President, Trump Jr., in-law Jared Kushner along with, then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort met with Veselnitskaya, who claimed she had damaging information on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
Trump Jr. released e-mails.released last week that show he was eager agreed to meet Veselnitskaya, who he was told was a Russian government lawyer. All parties have denied collusion intentions, Veselnitskaya denied having any ties to the Russian government, the Kremlin has denied colluding with the Trump campaign, and Trump has denied countless times that the entire rhetoric is a fluke.
The meeting appears to be the most tangible evidence of a connection between Trump’s election campaign and Russia.
