Secret Service didn't vet Trump Jr.'s meeting

This article is more than 12 months old

Jul 18, 2017 06:00 am

WASHINGTON The US Secret Service has denied a suggestion from President Donald Trump's personal lawyer that it had vetted a meeting between the president's son and Russian nationals during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Donald Trump Jr. has acknowledged that he met Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in New York after he was told she might have damaging information about his father's rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

"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," Mr Jay Sekulow, a member of the president's legal team, said on Sunday on the ABC news programme This Week.

In an e-mailed response to questions about Mr Sekulow's comments, Secret Service spokesman Mason Brayman said the younger Trump was not under Secret Service protection at the time of the meeting, which included Mr Trump's son and two senior campaign officials.- REUTERS