Jay Sekulow, a member of President Donald Trump’s outside legal team, on Wednesday morning would not say whether Trump believes it was inappropriate for his son to meet with a Kremlin-linked lawyer in the hopes of getting dirt on Hillary Clinton.
“It’s not illegal,” Sekulow said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” when asked if Trump thought the meeting was inappropriate. “I haven’t had the conversation with the president on whether he thought it was appropriate or not.”
Trump Jr. revealed emails on Tuesday showing that he set up the meeting knowing that the information was pitched as part of an effort by the Russian government to help the Trump campaign.
“The meeting that took place is not illegal. These kinds of meetings take place,” Sekulow said on ABC, claiming that the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee received information from the Ukrainian government.
"The meeting itself and what took place at the meeting doesn't violate the law." – President Trump's lawyer Jay Sekulow to @GStephanopoulos pic.twitter.com/XqgJ0ARTsJ
— Good Morning America (@GMA) July 12, 2017
Sekulow also said that the President was not aware of the meeting until “very recently.”
“The President was not aware of the meeting, did not participate in the meeting, did not attend the meeting,” he said on GMA, adding that Trump was brief by his lawyers on the meeting recently but that the President did not see the actual email chain until yesterday.
During an appearance on NBC’s “Today,” Sekulow downplayed the importance of Trump Jr.’s meeting with the Kremlin-linked lawyer.
“This was a 20-minute meeting that took place out of thousands of meetings,” he said when asked about Trump Jr.’s claim to the New York Times in March that he did not meet with any Russians while representing the campaign.
Sekulow acknowledged that Trump Jr. was representing the campaign in his meeting with the Russian lawyer, but he would not say that Trump Jr. lied to the New York Times.
“You want to call it a lie. This was a situation where he was having literally dozens of meetings every day,” he told “Today.”
NBC’s Savannah Guthrie also asked Sekulow to explain Donald Trump’s June 7 speech during which he teased upcoming news on Clinton’s crimes. The speech took place after the initial email to Trump Jr. but before the meeting took place.
“Opposition research was being done every single day by the campaigns. That’s the nature,” Sekolow replied. “It was not based on any of this.”
“The president was not aware and did not attend this meeting."
He was only made aware of the emails yesterday. Jay Sekulow says on TODAY pic.twitter.com/TbDfxoFp0N— TODAY (@TODAYshow) July 12, 2017
