According to two sources familiar with Secret Service protocols, the lawyer’s characterization of the agency is misleading.
President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Jay Sekulow misrepresented the role of the Secret Service on Sunday morning during an interview on ABC’s “This Week” in an attempt to justify Donald Trump Jr.’s controversial meeting with a Russian lawyer and a Russian-American lobbyist, several former and current Secret Service officials told HuffPost.
It has been eight days since The New York Times revealed that Trump’s son met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. It was confirmed on Friday that Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin was also present at the meeting.
The meeting has drawn condemnation and concerns on both sides of the aisle because it appears that Trump Jr. colluded with a foreign power hostile to the United States to seek negative information about his father’s presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton.
In his interview with ABC White House reporter Jon Karl on Saturday, Sekulow, a longtime Trump ally and a member of his personal legal team, asserted that if Veselnitskaya and Akhmetshin were such concerning figures, the Secret Service should have prevented them from entering Trump Tower. Sekulow made several misleading statements, according to current and former Secret Service officials who spoke to HuffPost.
Trump’s legal team and surrogates have been using a range of excuses to push back on the controversy surrounding the meeting, claiming it wasn’t illegal for Trump Jr. to have accepted it; that any campaign, regardless of party, would have accepted such a meeting; or that nothing of note came out of the meeting, meaning that it shouldn’t be a matter of interest to the press or public.
Some pundits and reporters have speculated that Sekulow shouldn’t even have made the assertion about the Secret Service’s role because Trump Jr.’s meeting took place on June 9, 2016 ― at that point, only his father had a Secret Service protective detail.
Even though Trump Jr. didn’t have a protective detail at the time of the meeting, given that Trump’s home, office and campaign office were all in the same space, the Secret Service did consider all of those spaces to be part of their screening oversight to look for physical danger to the candidate, according to two sources familiar with the protective posture of the Secret Service at that stage of the campaign.
“At that stage, we would only screen for physical threats, we were not at the stage to be in a counterintelligence posture,” Jonathan Wackrow, a 14-year veteran of the Secret Service, who served on former President Barack Obama’s detail, told HuffPost.
More: In Interview, Trump Lawyer Jay Sekulow Misrepresents Role of Secret Service
As the OP states, Trump Jr. did not have a protective service detail at that time, and even though the meeting took place in Trump Tower, the Secret Service was only responsible for screening physical threats. The Trumps are always looking to blame anyone but themselves.
President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Jay Sekulow misrepresented the role of the Secret Service on Sunday morning during an interview on ABC’s “This Week” in an attempt to justify Donald Trump Jr.’s controversial meeting with a Russian lawyer and a Russian-American lobbyist, several former and current Secret Service officials told HuffPost.
It has been eight days since The New York Times revealed that Trump’s son met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. It was confirmed on Friday that Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin was also present at the meeting.
The meeting has drawn condemnation and concerns on both sides of the aisle because it appears that Trump Jr. colluded with a foreign power hostile to the United States to seek negative information about his father’s presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton.
In his interview with ABC White House reporter Jon Karl on Saturday, Sekulow, a longtime Trump ally and a member of his personal legal team, asserted that if Veselnitskaya and Akhmetshin were such concerning figures, the Secret Service should have prevented them from entering Trump Tower. Sekulow made several misleading statements, according to current and former Secret Service officials who spoke to HuffPost.
KARL: But do you accept what we heard from the president’s pick to run the FBI, that what should’ve happened there, you know, a situation where you have representatives of a foreign government offering assistance to ― in an election, that what should’ve happened is that the FBI should’ve been notified?
SEKULOW: 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.
SEKULOW: 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.
Trump’s legal team and surrogates have been using a range of excuses to push back on the controversy surrounding the meeting, claiming it wasn’t illegal for Trump Jr. to have accepted it; that any campaign, regardless of party, would have accepted such a meeting; or that nothing of note came out of the meeting, meaning that it shouldn’t be a matter of interest to the press or public.
Some pundits and reporters have speculated that Sekulow shouldn’t even have made the assertion about the Secret Service’s role because Trump Jr.’s meeting took place on June 9, 2016 ― at that point, only his father had a Secret Service protective detail.
Even though Trump Jr. didn’t have a protective detail at the time of the meeting, given that Trump’s home, office and campaign office were all in the same space, the Secret Service did consider all of those spaces to be part of their screening oversight to look for physical danger to the candidate, according to two sources familiar with the protective posture of the Secret Service at that stage of the campaign.
“At that stage, we would only screen for physical threats, we were not at the stage to be in a counterintelligence posture,” Jonathan Wackrow, a 14-year veteran of the Secret Service, who served on former President Barack Obama’s detail, told HuffPost.
More: In Interview, Trump Lawyer Jay Sekulow Misrepresents Role of Secret Service
As the OP states, Trump Jr. did not have a protective service detail at that time, and even though the meeting took place in Trump Tower, the Secret Service was only responsible for screening physical threats. The Trumps are always looking to blame anyone but themselves.
