Appearing on CNN's "State of the Union," one of President Donald Trump's attorneys dismissed the ethical and moral implications of Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with Russian contacts before the election, saying there is no time for such considerations during the heat of a campaign
Attorney Jay Sekulow made the rounds of the Sunday morning talk shows and was pressed by CNN host Jake Tapper to address the June 9th, 2016 meeting at Trump Tower where the president's son met with Russians connected to the Kremlin.
"I understand you're a lawyer but you're also a man of faith," Tapper began. "Isn't it kind of important whether or not what Donald Trump Jr., [Paul] Manafort and [Jared] Kushner did, isn't it important, whether or not it's legal, whether or not it's wrong? Whether or not it's ethical?
"You're conflating three perspectives here, Jake," Sekulow parried. "The legality: was the meeting and what took place legal or not? Almost every legal expert says it's not illegal. Then you're trying to put a moral and ethical aspect to it and it's easy to do that in 20/20 hindsight but not when you're in the middle of a campaign."
"I'm not a campaign lawyer and I wasn't a campaign lawyer as the meetings were taking place," Sekulow continued. "Everybody looking backwards and saying would've, should've, could've. But to go back a year later and say this is what should have happened when the meeting was 20 minutes and a series of meetings that took place days and days for months, I don't think that's fair to Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner or Paul Manafort for that matter.'
"Not with the governments of hostile foreign powers, Jay. That's not normal," Tapper pressed."You could talk about opposition research all you want, but it's a Russian government attorney. That's what this was billed at. With high-level intelligence on Hillary Clinton? For all Don Jr. knew, from the FSB, successor to the KGB. That was coming from human intelligence. He had no idea where it was coming from, normal oppo is legally obtained. "
Watch the video below via CNN:
