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Trump Stuns Grieving Britons: Meet the Suspect in Your Son’s Death Trump Stuns Grieving Britons: Meet the Suspect in Your Son’s Death
(about 1 hour later)
LONDON — In a quest for justice after their son was killed in a car crash and the driver who is a suspect in the case fled Britain for the United States, two Britons traveled all the way to the White House this week. WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Wednesday that he had tried unsuccessfully to arrange a White House meeting between the parents of a teenager killed in an August crash in Britain and the American driver involved in the crash.
There, Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn, the parents of Harry Dunn, 19, who was killed in the crash in August, met with President Trump on Tuesday. He had an unpleasant surprise for them, they later said. The parents, Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn, met with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office Tuesday evening but balked when he said that Anne Sacoolas, the wife of an American diplomat whom British police are seeking for her involvement in the crash, was in a nearby room and wanted to meet with them.
Anne Sacoolas, 42, the wife of an American diplomat and the driver involved in the crash that killed their son, was in an adjacent room, waiting to meet them. The police in England said she had fled the country while claiming immunity. Britain and the United States have been involved in a diplomatic tug of war ever since. “I offered to bring the person in question in,” the president told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. “They weren’t ready for it. But I did offer.”
Mr. Trump, a former reality television star well versed in the language of staging a spectacle for the cameras, had another surprise. Members of the White House press corps were in another room. The attempted intervention added another painful twist to a case that has enraged Britons in the weeks since Ms. Sacoolas, 42, claimed diplomatic immunity and left the country in the days after the crash that killed Harry Dunn, 19. Since then, British and American officials have said that Ms. Sacoolas's claim to immunity is no longer relevant since she has returned home.
Apparently they were waiting to record any meeting between the grieving parents and the woman they had pleaded with in teary television interviews to return to Britain to face the police and to meet them so they could get answers. Shortly after her 15-minute meeting with the president, Ms. Charles said Mr. Trump proposed that she and her husband meet with Ms. Sacoolas, but Mr. Dunn said that the meeting felt “rushed” and that it would not have gone well.
“The bombshell was dropped not soon after we walked in the room,” Ms. Charles told reporters after the family’s 15-minute meeting with the president in Washington. “The bombshell was dropped not soon after we walked in the room,” Ms. Charles told reporters. “We would still love to meet with her, but it has to be on our terms and on U.K. soil.”
But the teenager’s parents, who said they would only meet Ms. Sacoolas when she returned to Britain, rejected Mr. Trump’s offer, saying that it felt “rushed” and that it would not have gone well. Ms. Charles added that Ms. Sacoolas “needs to come back and face the justice system.”
“We would still love to meet with her,” Ms. Charles said, “but it has to be on our terms and on U.K. soil.” She added, “She needs to come back and face the justice system.” In talking to reporters on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said he had arranged the meeting at the request of Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain.
Mark Stephens, a lawyer for the Dunn family, called the president’s surprise offer of a meeting “a gargantuan miscalculation.” “He asked me if I’d do that, and I did it,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Stephens told the British broadcaster Sky News that the move was one of many mistakes in the case, including Ms. Sacoolas’s flight from Britain, “making her a fugitive from justice.” He added of the White House offer, “Bringing her in that way was just so wrong.” But an official in Mr. Johnson’s office, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation, denied that the prime minister had suggested that Mr. Trump arrange the meeting in the way it was eventually formatted. The president brought up Ms. Sacoolas when the two leaders spoke last week, but no plans were completed.
In a further bewildering turn, the meeting between Mr. Trump and the Dunn family was attended by “the head of U.S. spying,” Mr. Stephens told reporters on Wednesday. “The prime minister asked the president to do all he could to help resolve this tragic issue,” a spokeswoman for Mr. Johnson said in a statement “The president agreed to work on trying to find a way forward.”
Mr. Stephens later said in a phone interview on Wednesday that he was referring to Robert C. O’Brien, the United States national security adviser. The end result was not what either side had envisioned.
“This O’Brien had effectively curated the idea that there would be a confrontation between the Dunns and Mrs. Sacoolas and that the press would film it,” Mr. Stephens added.
He added that while the president “left an olive branch on the table for a political solution,” Mr. O’Brien said that Ms. Sacoolas was “not going back under any circumstances.”
The White House and the British Foreign Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Apart from expressing anguish at the family’s loss through her lawyer, Ms. Sacoolas has not spoken out publicly about the crash that occurred on Aug. 27 in Brackley, a town in Northamptonshire about 60 miles northwest of London near a Royal Air Force base that hosts a United States Air Force communication station.
The Northamptonshire police said they suspected that Ms. Sacoolas had been driving on the wrong side of the road when her vehicle collided with a motorcycle ridden by Harry Dunn.
After the accident, the authorities said, Ms. Sacoolas told officers that she had no plans to travel abroad. But she abruptly left Britain, claiming diplomatic immunity and setting off an international uproar.
Britain made a formal request for a waiver of diplomatic immunity to the United States Embassy in London on Sept. 5. It was declined eight days later.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain said that he would appeal directly to Mr. Trump for Ms. Sacoolas’s return, and he raised the case in a phone call with the president last week, according to the prime minister’s office.
Mr. Trump expressed his condolences to Mr. Dunn’s family and “agreed to work together to find a way forward.” But there is no sign that American officials are going to budge and open the door to Ms. Sacoolas’s return to Britain.
Last week, Mr. Trump described the death as “a terrible accident,” adding that it was “a very, very complex issue because we’re talking about diplomatic immunity.” But he also expressed understanding for Ms. Sacoolas, suggesting that he had himself driven on the wrong side of the road in Britain.
“You know those are the opposite roads; that happens,” he said. “I won’t say it ever happened to me, but it did.”
Dominic Raab, Britain’s foreign secretary, said in a letter to the family on Saturday that diplomatic immunity for Ms. Sacoolas no longer applied to the case because she had returned to the United States.
“The U.K. Government’s position is that immunity, and therefore any question of waiver, is no longer relevant in Mrs. Sacoolas’s case, because she has returned home,” Mr. Raab said in the letter that was shared with The New York Times on Sunday.
“The U.S. have now informed us that they, too, consider that immunity is no longer pertinent,” Mr. Raab said, adding that the matter was now in the hands of the Northamptonshire Police and the Crown Prosecution Service.
Ms. Sacoolas’s lawyer had contacted the family and asked for a meeting, Radd Seiger, a spokesman for the parents, said on Sunday.
Ms. Sacoolas was said to be “devastated by this tragic incident,” according to a statement made on her behalf by her lawyer, Amy Jeffress. “No loss compares to the death of a child and Anne extends her deepest sympathy to Harry Dunn’s family,” the statement said.Ms. Sacoolas was said to be “devastated by this tragic incident,” according to a statement made on her behalf by her lawyer, Amy Jeffress. “No loss compares to the death of a child and Anne extends her deepest sympathy to Harry Dunn’s family,” the statement said.
“It was an accident, we understand that,” a teary-eyed Ms. Charles told reporters in New York on Monday. “But seven weeks on and we’ve had to do this to get an apology, just in writing, that’s just wrong,” she said. A person familiar with what transpired said Ms. Sacoolas had wanted to meet privately with the family, but was directed to come to the White House to participate in Mr. Trump’s plan.
Despite being caught off guard by the president’s suggestion for an unplanned meeting with Ms. Sacoolas, Harry Dunn’s parents appeared sympathetic toward Mr. Trump after their meeting. Mark Stephens, a lawyer for the Dunn family, called the president’s surprise offer of a meeting “a gargantuan miscalculation,” and suggested that the meeting had been orchestrated for the benefit of the news media.
Ms. Charles said that the president was “very gracious” and “very welcoming,” and though the president did not suggest that Ms. Sacoolas would return to Britain, she said, he said he would now “push to look at this from a different angle.” Mr. Stephens told reporters that the meeting was attended by “the head of U.S. spying, ” and later clarified in a phone interview on Wednesday that he was referring to Robert C. O’Brien, the president’s national security adviser.
“This O’Brien had effectively curated the idea that there would be a confrontation between the Dunns and Mrs. Sacoolas and that the press would film it,” Mr. Stephens said.
White House officials denied the claim that the meeting had been arranged with the idea that the news media would capture it, and reiterated that the British prime minister had helped hatch the plan.
“The president met with members of the Dunn family to personally offer his condolences for the loss of their son,” Mr. Trump’s press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, said in a statement. “His intent was to do all he could to comfort the victims of a tragic accident. This was at the request of Prime Minister Boris Johnson.”
Apart from expressing anguish at the family’s loss through her lawyer, Ms. Sacoolas has not spoken out publicly about the crash, which occurred on Aug. 27 in Brackley, a town in Northamptonshire about 60 miles northwest of London near a Royal Air Force base that hosts a United States Air Force communication station.
The Northamptonshire police said it believed that Ms. Sacoolas had been driving on the wrong side of the road when her vehicle collided with a motorcycle ridden by Harry Dunn.
After the accident, the authorities said, Ms. Sacoolas told officers that she had no plans to travel abroad. But she abruptly left Britain, claiming diplomatic immunity and setting off an international uproar. On Sept. 5, Britain made a formal request for a waiver of diplomatic immunity to the United States Embassy in London. It was declined eight days later.
Despite being caught off guard by the president’s suggestion for an unplanned meeting with Ms. Sacoolas, Harry Dunn’s parents appeared grateful for Mr. Trump’s interest in the case.
Ms. Charles said that the president was “very gracious” and “very welcoming,” and that though he did not suggest that Ms. Sacoolas would return to Britain, he said he would now “push to look at this from a different angle.”
“I think he generally will look to try and resolve this in a way to help us,” Mr. Dunn told reporters.“I think he generally will look to try and resolve this in a way to help us,” Mr. Dunn told reporters.
Last week, Mr. Trump described the death as “a terrible accident,” adding that it was “a very, very complex issue because we’re talking about diplomatic immunity.”
He also expressed understanding for Ms. Sacoolas, suggesting that he himself had driven on the wrong side of the road in Britain. On Wednesday, the president again expressed his sympathy for Ms. Sacoolas, whom he said had been confused by British driving laws.
“I believe it was going down the wrong way because that happens in Europe,” Mr. Trump told reporters. “The roads are opposite. And she said that’s what happened. That happens to a lot of people, by the way.”
The president said that he had a “beautiful” meeting with the “desperately sad” parents, but that his involvement in the matter was through.
“Now they say they only want to meet if they’re in the U.K.,” he said. “And that’ll be up to them.”
Katie Rogers reported from Washington, and Iliana Magra from London. Adam Goldman contributed reporting.