Dunn parents ambush was Johnson’s idea, claims Trump
President says British PM suggested surprise White House encounter with driver who killed son
DONALD TRUMP claimed yesterday that he tried to broker a meeting between Harry Dunn’s grieving parents and the American woman who killed the teenager because Boris Johnson suggested he do so.
Mr Dunn’s parents, Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn, arrived at the White House on Tuesday night to be told that Anne Sacoolas was in the next room. The couple refused to meet her. The family’s lawyer, Mark Stephens, yesterday called the attempt at surprise a “gargantuan miscalculation.” Mrs Charles described the news of Mrs Sacoolas’s presence as “a bombshell”.
Mr Trump later said the plan was originally the Prime Minister’s. “I spoke with Boris. He asked me if I’d do that, and I did it,” he said. “I offered to bring the person in question in. They weren’t ready for it. But I did offer.”
Downing Street last night downplayed the idea it had suggested the encounter. A spokesman noted that Mr Trump and Mr Johnson last spoke eight days ago – before the family had announced their intention to travel to the US – and added: “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.”
It is understood that during the conversation Mr Trump raised the possibility of bringing Mrs Sacoolas to the White House to meet the family, but the issue was not discussed further.
The New York Times has revealed that the White House press corps had been assembled to capture the distraught parents’ encounter with Mrs Sacoolas in a Jerry Springer-style “reveal”.
Mr Stephens branded Robert O’brien, Mr Trump’s new national security adviser, a “nincompoop” for orchestrating the failed stunt.
He said: “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. He’s piled additional grief and hurt on the Dunn family that was entirely unnecessary.”
The family have always insisted they would only speak to Mrs Sacoolas if she agreed to return to the UK.
Harry Dunn, 19, died on Aug 27 when Mrs Sacoolas, the wife of a US intelligence officer, drove her car on the wrong side of the road in Northamptonshire, where they all lived.
She initially cooperated with police, but then left the country, sparking the Dunn family’s campaign to convince her to return to the UK and face justice.
Radd Sieger, the family’s spokesman, said they were taken aback by Mr Trump’s revelation that Mrs Sacoolas was in the next room, and declined his offer to meet her there and then.
“This sort of meeting needs to be conducted extremely sensitively,” he told The Telegraph. “You don’t do it in
‘I spoke with Boris. He asked me if I’d do that, and I did it. They weren’t ready for it. But I did offer’
the Oval Office with the world’s media watching. The potential for it to be counterproductive is significant and cause long-lasting damage.” He said the parents were shocked at such a “grotesque” stunt for the cameras.
“Mr Trump never said that Boris Johnson had the idea of bringing Anne Sacoolas into the White House to meet us,” he added. “He told us that he had a great relationship with Mr Johnson, and they were friends. But that was all.”
Mrs Charles said that, at the end of the meeting, Mr Trump held her hand and squeezed it tightly. She said she asked him to put himself in their shoes, and asked if he would be seeking justice for his child if he died this way.
She added: “I was honest with him, and said, ‘If it was your son, you would be doing the same as us.’ He gripped my hand a little bit tighter and said, ‘Yes, I would be.’”