U.S. First Lady Melania Trump suspects Roger Stone, a long-time advisor to the president, of leaking nude photos from her modelling past during the 2016 election, a new book states.
She, however, refuses to believe that her husband had any involvement in the scandal, CNN correspondent Kate Bennett adds in ‘Free Melania: The Unauthorized Biography’, due to be released on Tuesday.
“Melania has not commented on how she thinks they got into the hands of the tabloid and on to the cover, but friends say she still refuses to believe Trump would do that to her,” Bennett wrote.
“As for Stone, she’s not so sure.”
In a statement to the Guardian , White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said, “Mrs. Trump is surprised at Kate Bennett’s reporting. Our office worked with Kate in good faith on her book, and thought she would do an honest job. Sadly, it includes many false details and opinions, showing Ms. Bennett spoke to many anonymous people who don’t know the first lady.”
The photos in question are from a 1996 photoshoot during Melania Knauss’ modelling days, which were published by a French magazine the next year. The photos reappeared on July 30, 2016, in the New York Post, three months before election day. At the time, Donald Trump was entangled in an ugly dispute with the family of Capt. Humayun Khan, a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq in 2004.
The then-presidential candidate had been suspected of releasing the photos as a way of detracting attention from himself. “The theory goes … that Trump was trying to head off a bad week on the campaign,” Bennett wrote.
“This time,” Bennett added, “the idea that [Trump] would throw his naked wife under the bus was almost so gross and salacious, and the photos so B-movie bad, the press ultimately spent very little time discussing them.”
Stone’s wife, Nydia, called the allegations “categorically false and completely illogical.”
“The ludicrous claim is an obvious attempt to drive a wedge between my husband and the president whom he has supported so loyally for the last 30 years,” she told the Guardian .
Roger Stone is currently awaiting sentencing after he was found guilty last month of obstructing the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The book also sheds light on the life of the famously private first lady in White House, claiming that she “prefers her own large, private space in a suite of rooms on a separate floor” from the president.
She reportedly lives in a two-room private suite, which was formerly occupied by Michelle Obama’s mother, and also has a glam room and private gym.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019
