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Trump says PM asked him to set up meeting with Harry Dunn family Trump says PM asked him to set up meeting with Harry Dunn family
(about 1 hour later)
Donald Trump has said Boris Johnson asked him to set up a meeting between Harry Dunn’s family and the suspect in the case of the 19-year-old’s death. Donald Trump said Boris Johnson had asked him to set up a surprise meeting in the White House between the parents of teenage Harry Dunn and the woman suspected of killing him in a road traffic collision. The president also claimed lawyers may have stymied his efforts to bring them together.
Speaking at the White House on Wednesday, the US president said he thought the teenager’s parents were ready to meet Anne Sacoolas, 42, after she was allegedly involved in the crash that killed Dunn on 27 August. But a spokesman for Tim Dunn and Charlotte Charles blamed Trump’s national security adviser, Richard O’Brien, for the failed stunt, describing him as “a nincompoop”.
Dunn’s parents, Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn, were invited to meet Trump on Tuesday and were then told Sacoolas was in the next room, but the pair declined to see her. The recriminations broke out after Trump on Tuesday invited the grieving parents of the 19-year-old to a surprise meeting in the White House and, in what the family described as a bombshell, revealed that the woman involved in the crash, Anne Sacoolas, was waiting in the room next door to meet them and personally apologise. Trump personally pressed them to go ahead with the “healing meeting” two or three times.
Sacoolas has said she was disappointed a meeting did not take place. The family, in the US to raise awareness of their case, refused the invitation, saying they would only meet Sacoolas in the UK where she would also face a police investigation. They said any meeting would need to be prearranged with therapists present.
A statement issued by Sacoolas’s lawyer, Amy Jeffress, said: “We are trying to handle the matter privately and look forward to hearing from the family or their representatives. Anne accepted the invitation to the White House with the hope that the family would meet and was disappointed.” Sacoolas fled from the UK days after the 27 August accident claiming diplomatic immunity on the basis that her American husband, Jonathan, worked at RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire. The presence of O’Brien at the surprise White House meeting underlines his background in intelligence.
A Downing Street spokesperson said: “The prime minister and president spoke last Wednesday. The prime minister asked the president to do all he could to help resolve this tragic issue. The president agreed to work on trying to find a way forward.” Referring to the Dunn family not wanting to meet Sacoolas at the White House, Trump said: “She was in the room right out there, we met right here. I offered to bring the person in question in, and they weren’t ready for it. I spoke with Boris, he asked me if I’d do that, and I did it. Unfortunately they wanted to meet with her and unfortunately when we had everybody together they decided not to meet. Perhaps they had lawyers involved by that time, I don’t know exactly.”
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Wednesday, Trump said: “My meeting with the family yesterday was beautiful in a certain way. They did not want to meet the person in question but we had a very good meeting – they are very nice people. He described the meeting as beautiful and sad, and said Dunn’s parents were “lovely, desperately sad people”.
“The meeting took place right here at around six o’clock last night and it was very sad, to be honest. She lost, and they lost, her son. I believe it [the car] was going down the wrong way and that happens in Europe – you go to Europe and the roads are opposite and it’s very tough if you’re from the United States. On Wednesday a Downing Street spokesperson said: “The prime minister and president spoke last Wednesday. The prime minister asked the president to do all he could to help resolve this tragic issue. The president agreed to work on trying to find a way forward.”
“That decision to make a right turn when you’re supposed to make a left turn when the roads are opposite and she said that’s what happened. It happens to a lot of people, by the way – but she said that’s what happened. Family spokesman Radd Seiger said O’Brien told the family during the meeting that Sacoolas “was never coming back” to the UK. He added O’Brien “appeared to be extremely uptight and aggressive and did not come across at all well in this meeting which required careful handling and sensitivity”.
“She was in the room right out there – we met right here and I offered to bring the person in question in and they weren’t ready for it – I did offer. Mark Stephens, the family’s legal adviser, added: “Having ice in your veins is a very good characteristic for being a spy but thinking you can treat human beings in that way, you would have to be a nincompoop.
“Boris, he asked me if I’d do that and I did it. Unfortunately they wanted to meet with her and unfortunately when we had everybody together they decided not to meet – perhaps they had lawyers involved at that time – I don’t know. The people were lovely, they were very nice and desperately sad.” “He’s piled additional grief and hurt on the Dunn family that was entirely unnecessary – he started it by causing her to be a fugitive from justice, spiriting her out of the country on US Air Force transport without telling the Northamptonshire police.” He also said press has been lined up by Trump to see the two families meeting.
He added: “I thought they were, based on what I saw, ready to meet – but now they say they only want to meet when they are in the UK and that’ll be up to them. The family and I expressed our condolences on behalf of our country.” Charles insisted: “We’ve said all along that you know we are willing to meet her. We are still willing to meet her. But it needs to be on UK soil and with therapists and mediators. And that’s not just for us. That’s for her as well.”
Speaking after the meeting on Tuesday, the family’s spokesman, Radd Seiger, said it had been the president’s intention for the family to meet Sacoolas in the Oval Office in front of several photographers, “in what was obviously designed to be a press call”. A statement issued by Sacoolas’s lawyer Amy Jeffress said: “We are trying to handle the matter privately and look forward to hearing from the family or their representatives. Anne accepted the invitation to the White House with the hope that the family would meet and was disappointed.”
He added: “Harry’s parents remain committed to pursuing a solution to the dispute and need one to happen quickly for the sake of their health. Harry’s parents declined any such meeting.” It is not clear how much Sacoolas is acting freely in refusing to return to the UK, or is instead acting on the orders of US intelligence.
Seiger also said on the Justice4Harry GoFundMe page: “It struck us that this meeting was hastily arranged by nincompoops on the run. The family remain open to the possibility of meeting Mrs Sacoolas one day in the future but in a neutral and appropriately controlled environment.” Northamptonshire police said they would soon submit a case file on the crash to the Crown Prosecution Service for a charging decision.
If Sacoolas is charged with causing death by careless driving, or a more serious charge of causing death by dangerous driving, the force can issue an extradition request or a red notice by Interpol. She has admitted she was driving on the wrong side of the road when the accident occurred.
The family also has the option of bringing a civil case against Sacoolas. Stephens said “It is often not understood that diplomatic immunity only applies in the host country, so the UK, not in the home country – it evaporates the moment you set foot on US soil.”
Donald TrumpDonald Trump
Boris JohnsonBoris Johnson
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