Otherwise unreported, White House counsel Jay Sekulow was not working for candidate Donald Trump when the meeting between Trump Jr and a Kremlin lawyer was taking place at the Trump Tower. Sekulow's recent defense for Trump Jr. and others being present stresses the limits of his defense, especially when Sekulow has said that he does not represent Trump Jr., only the President of the United States. Despite this, the White House lawyer still felt the need to protect the President's eldest son from the undeniable view that the campaign colluded with Russian officials.

Sekulow wonders about Secret Service protection

This is why it was even more curious when Jay Sekulow suggested that the Secret Service should have prevented the meeting from taking place. In this defense, the lawyer attempted to suggest a way to measure the seriousness of the potential crime the campaign had committed when its members had agreed to meet with Russian officials. But in defense of the campaign, he also showed when he stressed the limits of that defense, especially because the then-candidate's son was not under Secret Service protection yet.

In an article published by Think Progress titled: "Did Donald Trump's lawyer accidentally make a huge confession about the meeting with the Russian lawyer?", it refers to Jaw Sekulow's interview with ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos on July 16, where he fired back at the host of the show with his own question.

That question was that if it was so bad for the Trump campaign to hold a meeting with a Russian lawyer, why didn't the Secret Service stop it.

Sekulow also went further to incorrectly state that Trump Jr. had Secret Service protection at that point. The article said that then-Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson had approved security for the candidate and his wife in late 2015.

But again, protection didn't come for Trump Jr. or Eric Trump until September, first with protection for Ivanka. In fact, the article referred to a statement made by a spokesman for the Secret Service who confirmed that Donald Jr. was not protected at the time that the session had taken place.

Was Donald Trump in the room?

But this recalls that President Trump has denied that he was in the same room even though it was already reported that the candidate was in Trump Tower on the same day.

If he was not at the meeting; it's been suggested that he was likely on another floor or in another room. The 20-30 minute gathering reportedly also included campaign manager Paul Manafort, Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and of course Trump Jr. himself. Along with the Kremlin lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya -- and her translator; it was reported that the organizer of the meeting, Rob Goldstone was there along with Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin.

To add, this week Irakly Kaveladze was added as the eighth person to be in that room, a man with ties to former Soviet intelligence officials and a creator of Russian shell companies. But the Think Progress article referred to other details which state that Secret Service protects the President (or candidate) from potential physical danger and unless the Russian officials posed a threat, they might not have any reason to be in the same room. But, it also mentioned that the Secret Service has the overall responsibility to protect the candidate himself which would only be the case if Donald Trump was physically in the room.
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