The grieving parents of a British teenager who was killed in a car crash involving an American diplomat's wife felt ambushed when President Donald Trump tried to get them to meet with the woman in front of the press, attorneys for the couple said Wednesday.
Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn traveled to Washington on Tuesday seeking to have the woman's diplomatic immunity lifted. Instead, Trump and national security adviser Robert O'Brien surprised the family by inviting Anne Sacoolas to the White House and suggesting Dunn's parents meet with her in front of the White House press corps.
Attorney Mark Stephens told The Associated Press the couple had no idea Sacoolas would be in the building when they were there Tuesday and were stunned by the proposition. He said the couple wants to meet with Sacoolas at some point, but not in a surprise meeting staged for reporters.
"If there's going to be a meeting like that, it should not involve a surprise, a jack-in-the-box, pop-out-of-a-circus-tent meeting seven weeks after the loss," said Radd Seiger, a retired lawyer who is a neighbor of the family and accompanied them to the White House. "For this to happen, you would want some heavy-duty therapy and you want to meet in a neutral environment."
Trump told reporters Wednesday that he thought the family had wanted to meet with Sacoolas, but that "they weren't ready for it" Tuesday.
"It was very sad, to be honest," he said of their conversation. "They lost their son."
Trump said he had spoken with Sacoolas and that she had been waiting in a room just off the Oval Office when he made the offer to Dunn's family.
"They weren't ready for it," Trump said. "But I did offer. I spoke with Boris. He asked me if I'd do that. And I did it," Trump said, referring to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. "Unfortunately, when we had everybody together, they decided not to meet. Perhaps they had lawyers involved by that time. I don't know exactly."
Pressed on why he thought that was something they would welcome, Trump said that, "based on what I saw they wanted to meet. But now they say they only want to meet if they're in the U.K. And that'll be up to them