Rumors about Trump Models criminal scandal hit the boil
UPDATE: Part of this story appears to have been debunked. Details appended at end of article.
Could an actual human trafficking scandal destroy Donald Trump? Rumors hit a boil early Tuesday evening, but a bit of back story is needed.
Just about one year ago, Mother Jones ran an article exposing Trump Models’ little illegal immigrant problem.
[T]he mogul’s New York modeling agency, Trump Model Management, has profited from using foreign models who came to the United States on tourist visas that did not permit them to work here, according to three former Trump models, all noncitizens, who shared their stories with Mother Jones. Financial and immigration records included in a recent lawsuit filed by a fourth former Trump model show that she, too, worked for Trump’s agency in the United States without a proper visa. …
Canadian-born Rachel Blais spent nearly three years working for Trump Model Management. After first signing with the agency in March 2004, she said, she performed a series of modeling gigs for Trump’s company in the United States without a work visa. At Mother Jones‘ request, Blais provided a detailed financial statement from Trump Model Management and a letter from an immigration lawyer who, in the fall of 2004, eventually secured a visa that would permit her to work legally in the United States. These records show a six-month gap between when she began working in the United States and when she was granted a work visa. During that time, Blais appeared on Trump’s hit reality TV show, The Apprentice, modeling outfits designed by his business protégés. As Blais walked the runway, Donald Trump looked on from the front row.
Two other former Trump models—who requested anonymity to speak freely about their experiences, and who we are giving the pseudonyms Anna and Kate—said the agency never obtained work visas on their behalf, even as they performed modeling assignments in the United States. (They provided photographs from some of these jobs, and Mother Jones confirmed with the photographers or stylists that these shoots occurred in the United States.)
Each of the three former Trump models said she arrived in New York with dreams of making it big in one of the world’s most competitive fashion markets. But without work visas, they lived in constant fear of getting caught. “I was pretty on edge most of the time I was there,” Anna said of the three months in 2009 she spent in New York working for Trump’s agency.
“I was there illegally,” she said. “A sitting duck.”
A couple months later, the Daily Beast picked up some chatter involving the juicy combination of Trump Models and drug-fueled parties including underage girls.
…Trump, as I’ve reported, used to host parties in suites at the Plaza Hotel when he owned it, where young women and girls were introduced to older, richer men. This is hardly aberrant behavior in the modeling business. Indeed, it is standard operating procedure.
But both men also put Donald Trump in the room with cocaine, very young women and underage girls, and rich, old men…
Andy Lucchesi, the second man I spoke to, was and remains a male model. He was identified to me by a modeling executive as a frequent visitor to the Trump model salons. “I don’t want to get him in trouble,” Lucchesi says of Trump. “I like Donald. I respect the guy. People should want to know about Jeffrey Epstein and Bill Clinton,” referring to the billionaire pedophile who in fact palled around with both Clinton and Trump. I ask if he’s equating Trump’s parties with Epstein’s debauches. “Hell no,” Lucchesi says.
Lucchesi had been described to me by the modeling executive as an organizer of Trump’s parties, one of several who wrangled models to them. Asked about that description, Lucchesi says that “the parties weren’t like an organized once a week thing.”
But was he wrangling models for Trump? “A lot of people would say that,” Lucchesi allows, adding that he thought Trump’s motive was a desire to open a model agency of his own, which he eventually did.
Lucchesi’s recollection of the parties dovetails with the photographer’s account. “There was cocaine around. I never saw him do that. Donald Trump does not do cocaine. He’s in control of himself.”
Girls? “Well. Of course,” Lucchesi says. “But I never knew him as one of those guys buying apartments for girls from Estonia.” (Though he did marry a model from Slovenia.)
But did he have sex with his female party guests? “So, he’s a man with a woman,” Lucchesi says vaguely. How old were they? “A lot of girls, 14, look 24. That’s as juicy as I can get. I never asked how old they were; I just partook. I did partake in activities that would be controversial, too.”
Late last month, one of the two most prescient Twitterati who has been weeks ahead of the mainstream media on information concerning Trump’s Russian scandals picked up some chatter from the tightly-knit universe of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman that parallels the MoJo and Beast articles:
There are shocking new claims that Trump Model Management is being investigated by New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman for human trafficking. Claude Taylor, whose Twitter biography describes his history as serving on three presidential campaigns as well as being on the White House staff during the Clinton administration, claimed in a series of tweets to have breaking news from a Schneiderman source that Trump Model Management is being investigated for human trafficking.
The Trump Model Management Twitter page, found at @TrumpModels, is currently set to private.
The Trump Models Instagram page, an account that had photos and/or videos that totaled 2,444 posts and had 53,900 followers, is no longer alive. The web cache of the TrumpModels.com development page is still alive. The Trump Model Management Facebook page is still alive. The Trump Models (trumpmodels) on Pinterest page has been removed as well. Even the web cache of the Pinterest page is gone. …
According to Taylor, the Trump Model Management’s alleged human trafficking investigation by Schneiderman has a connection with Yury Yakovlevich Chaika. Yury is the current prosecutor general of Russia, a man who Newsweek says was likely linked to a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. Claude also stated that his source confirmed that Trump Model Management is allegedly being investigated for transporting Russian girls with passports that claimed they were older than their actual ages, as seen in the series of tweets from Taylor below.
Claude’s source said that “very high profile” people are involved in the alleged Trump Model Management case, and some of those folks want immunity deals. Claude went so far as to call Trump a name and write about his alleged cravings. Taylor claimed that the Russian girls were given new names, as well as older ages. Taylor claimed the girls were forced to entertain party guests.
… which leads up to tonight’s bombshell from former British MP, gadfly “never Trump” Twitter ninja, and apparently well-connected-to-the-intel-community writer Louise Mensch. Yes, she is controversial – but she too has been way, way ahead of established news outlets on many of the crucial Russiagate stories and details. Tonight, at her blog Patribotics, she writes
Sources with links to the intelligence community report that Donald Trump is being investigated for trafficking underage girls into the United States for sexual abuse, under the guise of his shell modeling company, Trump Models.
These sources report that Trump is linked to a Russian-based human trafficking enterprise, where girls and women were kidnapped into sexual slavery. This includes underage girls and minors.
The human trafficking arrests made recently in Europe, and several human trafficking cases in the United States, are linked to the same paedophile ring, these sources say.
The post is lengthy and detailed, drawing connections between several players in the Trump and Russian universe, some of whom have been identified as proxies for Russian organized crime or government operators.
It’s bad enough that Trump Models has been accused of arranging to falsify visas with the goal of getting underage women into the USA for work. If either Taylor’s or Mensch’s revelations are even partially true, Trump is toast, politically and legally. Stay tuned.
UPDATE, Aug. 28 – It looks as if Claude Taylor and Louise Mensch were targets of what smells like a malicious hoax:
Explosive allegations about Donald Trump made by online writers with large followings among Trump critics were based on bogus information from a hoaxer who falsely claimed to work in law enforcement.
Claude Taylor tweeted fake details of criminal inquiries into Trump that were invented by a source whose claim to work for the New York attorney general was not checked, according to emails seen by the Guardian. The allegations were endorsed as authentic and retweeted by his co-writer Louise Mensch.
The source’s false tips included an allegation, which has been aggressively circulated by Mensch and Taylor, that Trump’s inactive fashion model agency is under investigation by New York authorities for possible sex trafficking.
The hoaxer, who fed the information to Taylor by email, said she acted out of frustration over the “dissemination of fake news” by Taylor and Mensch. Their false stories about Trump have included a claim that he was already being replaced as president by Senator Orrin Hatch in a process kept secret from the American public.
“Taylor asked no questions to verify my identity, did no vetting whatsoever, sought no confirmation from a second source – but instead asked leading questions to support his various theories, asking me to verify them,” the source said in an email.
After being approached for comment by the Guardian on Monday, Taylor posted what he described as a “mea culpa” on Twitter. “As a ‘citizen journalist’ I acknowledge my error and do apologize,” he wrote.
Mensch denied using the bogus information and said her allegations about Trump’s model agency came from her own sources. Asked why she had retweeted Taylor’s false posts, Mensch said: “I don’t think anybody can vet anybody else’s sources.”
The source falsely claimed to be an official named “Caitlin” in the office of Eric Schneiderman, New York’s attorney general. She shared details of her hoax on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation from followers of Taylor and Mensch. The Guardian verified her true identity and confirmed that she is not named Caitlin and does not work for Schneiderman.
Louise Mensch, for her part, tweeted:
I love you but please don't be confused by @Guardian's straight lie. My sources are not this woman. Never heard from her, ever.
— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) August 28, 2017
