Strip search at Heathrow for Russian

Mystery deepens over lawyer who met Trump jnr as President visits Paris Jim, the invisible friend

The Russian lawyer who met US President Donald Trump’s son was strip-searched at Heathrow Airport on her way to New York, deepening the mystery over their discussion.

Natalia Veselnitskaya, who denies connections to the Kremlin, had complained of being “unjustifiably” detained at the airport on her way to the US to represent a client early in 2016. Veselnitskaya had been denied a visa but managed to get special permission to enter the US for court hearings.

She was still stopped en route, raising further questions about the suitability for Donald Trump jnr to later jump at the chance of meeting her. In a statement filed to court in January 2016 — six months before the meeting in Trump Tower — she said: “I was detained for two hours by Heathrow Airport officials who specifically targeted me on the basis of the parole number that the United States Government had assigned to me. During this detention I was unjustifiably subjected to a strip search, for no apparent reason.”

Beset by allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 US election, US President Donald Trump is visiting Paris today seeking common ground with France’s new leader Emmanuel Macron. Trump will bask in the trappings of the Bastille Day military parade and commemorations of the entry 100 years ago of US troops into World War I.

Emails suggest his eldest son welcomed Russian help against his father’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

Trump defended Donald jnr, declaring him “innocent” and a victim of the “greatest witch hunt in political history”. For all things Paris, President Donald Trump’s go-to guy is Jim.

The way Trump tells it, Jim is a friend who loves Paris and used to visit every year. Yet when Trump visits the city today for his first time as President, it’s unlikely that Jim will tag along.

Jim doesn’t go to Paris any more. Trump says that’s because the city has been infiltrated by foreign extremists.

Whether Jim exists is unclear. Trump has never given his last name. The White House has not responded to a request for comment about who Jim is or whether he will be on the trip.

Trump repeatedly talked about the enigmatic Jim while on the campaign trail but his friend didn’t receive widespread attention until Trump became president. For Trump, Jim’s story serves as a cautionary tale — a warning even a place as lovely as Paris can be ruined if leaders are complacent about terrorism. — AP