Trump blames Boris after ambushing crash parents
PM asked me to arrange meeting between Harry’s family and diplomat wife in fatal smash, says President
DONALD Trump last night claimed Boris Johnson asked him to get Harry Dunn’s parents to meet the US diplomat’s wife accused of killing their son in a car crash.
The US President made the incendiary claim as Harry’s family accused him of entrapment by trying to ‘railroad’ them into meeting Anne Sacoolas.
Speaking from the White House yesterday, Mr Trump said the Prime Minister personally asked him to set up the meeting.
Downing Street said Mr Johnson asked the President to ‘do all he could to help resolve this tragic issue’ during a phone call. But a spokesman did not reveal whether he actually asked him to get both sides to meet at the White House.
Mr Trump also claimed that 19year-old Harry’s parents, Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn, had wanted to meet Mrs Sacoolas, 42, but changed their minds when they arrived. Harry’s family have always insisted that they will only meet her once she has returned to the UK to face justice over the car crash.
The war of words erupted after the family met Mr Trump and his top security advisers on Tuesday evening. Within seconds of sitting down on Oval Office sofas, the President stunned Harry’s parents by saying Mrs Sacoolas was in an adjoining room and he wanted them to meet.
Radd Seiger, the family’s spokesman, said the mood in the room suddenly became ‘quite sinister’ and there was a ‘really intense pressure’ for the reconciliation to take place.
Despite the overwhelming atmosphere, Harry’s parents ‘made it very clear’ they would only meet her on UK soil. US National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, who was at the meeting, then said Mrs Sacoolas is ‘never coming back’ to Britain.
Harry’s family believe they were ambushed in an cynical attempt to turn their son’s death into a PR stunt. Mr Trump last night described his meeting with Harry’s family as ‘beautiful in a certain way’ and said they ‘are very nice people’.
Speaking from the Oval Office, he said: ‘I offered to bring the person in question in and they weren’t ready for it...But I did offer. I spoke with Boris – he asked me if I’d do that and I did it. They wanted to meet with her and unfortunately when we had everybody together, they decided not to meet.’
A Downing Street spokesman 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.’
Last night Mr Seiger said at least three photographers were standing beside the Oval Office desk to ‘capture the moment of the reconciliation’. ‘I realised it was a trap – it was an ambush,’ he said. ‘He wanted to bring the two parties together because he thought that Harry’s mother Charlotte was going to end up hugging Mrs Sacoolas.
‘The photographers were clearly there to take the money shot of the two mums hugging with Donald Trump standing there with his thumbs up saying: “Look at me, aren’t I wonderful? I’ve got the two people together”.’ He added: ‘I think the family feel a little bit ambushed, to say the least. I thought we were coming down to have a debate on the diplomatic immunity law and it soon became clear to us what the real reason was.’
Mrs Charles said she refused to meet Mrs Sacoolas because her son was ‘too important’ and she did not want the Trump administration to ‘think they had fixed things’.
She added: ‘ The bombshell was dropped soon after we walked in the room – Anne Sacoolas was in the building and was willing to meet with us. By having Anne Sacoolas there – I think maybe they were hoping that would be enough for us. But seven weeks on, it’s not enough.
‘They were trying desperately to get us to accept the invitation to meet her on their terms, which we were not prepared to do. We made it very clear that that needs to be on our terms, on UK soil when she has faced our justice system.’
Mrs Sacoolas, whose husband worked at a US intelligence base in Northamptonshire, has admitted driving on the wrong side of the road and causing the crash which knocked Harry off his motorbike, killing him.
She said she was ‘terribly, terribly sorry for that tragic mistake’. But she flew back to the US three weeks later, claiming diplomatic immunity. She has refused to say whether she is willing to return to the UK. Last night Mrs Sacoolas said she was ‘disappointed’ not to have met Harry’s family at the White House.