Jay Sekulow: Trump Jr. Russian Meeting 'Not Illegal'

The meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian attorney was "not illegal," and President Donald Trump did not have any involvement or prior knowledge that the meeting had happened, Jay Sekulow, one of the president's attorneys, said while making the rounds of Wednesday morning's news talk shows.

"The meeting that took place is not illegal," Sekulow told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos on "Good Morning America."

"The president was not at the meeting, was not aware of the meeting, did not participate in the meeting," Sekulow said about revelations that Trump Jr., accompanied by his brother-in-law, Jared Kushner, and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort had met with the attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya.

Trump Jr. on Tuesday released a chain of emails that led up to the meeting, showing he'd been told he would receive information harmful to then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, and that Russia backed his father's campaign.

Sekulow also told NBC's "Today" show that Trump was neither aware of the meeting between his son and the attorney, who on Tuesday told NBC the president's son and his associates wanted to hear information about the Democratic nominee "so badly that they could only hear the thought that they wanted."

Sekulow told "Today" that the president was "only made aware of the email, then this chain of emails, which he only saw yesterday as it was released. He was made aware of it just in the last — really, very, very recently, by his lawyers."

Further, Sekulow said it was not illegal for Trump Jr. to meet with the lawyer, and that there's "no statute that's even in play." He also denied that the president's son lied about the meeting.

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"There was no information that exchanged," Sekulow told the "Today" show.

"There was a meeting that took place, [but] no exchange of information. The meeting ended up producing nothing, and now there's a media frenzy going around this . . . well, the fact is zero happened here."

"We know what the facts are here, the chain of emails are out there," he also said. "There's no violation of any law. It's got all this atmospherics, the fact is, there's no law that's been violated here."

Sekulow also insisted that other governments have offered information during campaigns, including the Ukrainian government to Clinton about Trump. But with Trump Jr.'s meeting, nothing illegal was done, and the president's son did not lie, said Sekulow.

"This was a situation where he was having literally dozens of meetings a day," said Sekulow. "This was a 20-minute meeting that nothing took place in. There was was no information that was exchanged . . . now there's a media frenzy, but the fact is, zero happened here."

At one point in the email exchange, the other party, Rob Goldstone, offered to also send the offer for the meeting to Trump's father via his long-time personal assistant Rhona Graff, but Sekulow said he has not rechecked her emails to make sure she didn't receive the documentation or that the now-president didn't.

"Rhona works for the Trump organization," said Sekulow. "I represent the president of the United States, but the president did not see any emails relating to this at all."

Sekulow also reiterated on "CBS This Morning" that there was "no violation of the law" for Trump Jr. to hold the meeting.

"I'm not the only lawyer saying this; most legal scholars are saying this," he argued. "Opposition research is not uncommon, even when the government aspect has raised a lot of interest. Obviously, we're talking about it this morning."

Further, at the time Russian involvement was not a "significant question," said Sekulow.

"The other thing that seems to get lost in this and I said this before, all this concern about Russia, all the reports have indicated that President [Barack] Obama was aware of Russia's attempts at engagement, and they did nothing about it."