“We were shocked that they actually did,” and “we’d considered they might spring that on us,” said Charlotte Charles of President Trump.
This was in response to Trump’s attempt to ambush her and her husband after a US diplomat’s wife caused a crash that ended their son’s life. “It’s not really very fair,” she added.
Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn were the parents of Harry Dunn, a 19-year-old who passed away in the UK after being hit on his motorcycle. Anne Sacoolas, the wife of a US intelligence officer, careened into the teen while driving on the wrong side of the road outside of a British air force base used by the US.
Anne Sacoolas then claimed diplomatic immunity and fled the UK with her family on a state-sponsored private jet. She has not been seen in public since then.
Tim Dunn and Charlotte Charles had arrived in New York in an effort to drum up support and pressure the American government to send Sacoolas back to the UK to face justice. When speaking to the press, the Dunn family said that they would like to meet with Sacoolas, but only if she returned to the UK.
A day later, they received an “urgent” invitation to the White House from National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, which they accepted. However, instead of speaking with the grieving parents, President Trump instead “ambushed” them.
When Tim and Charlotte arrived to meet with the president, Trump revealed that he had secretly smuggled Sacoolas into the room next door, and she was waiting to meet them.
The Dunns refused to meet with her, telling Trump that the whole thing was “inappropriate” and that they refuse to face Sacoolas until she returns to the UK.
Trump had also apparently tried to turn the ill-considered meeting into a press call, with a pool of photographers ready and waiting to capture the moment that Harry’s parents met the woman who careened into him with her car.
The Dunn family’s lawyer, Radd Seiger, ended the talks after Trump revealed that fugitive Sacoolas was in the room next door.
Seiger says that the meeting left the family feeling “a little ambushed, to say the least,” and added that they feel “disappointed they made the effort” only to make “little progress towards achieving the closure they are so desperately seeking.”
