Politico Reporter: 'There's A Good Chance' Melania Trump In US Illegally
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Politico reporter Ben Schreckinger said "there's a good chance" Donald Trump's wife, Melania Trump, is in the United States illegally.
Politico originally reported Thursday that gaps in her immigration story have raised questions whether the model from Slovenia is in the country legally.
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Schreckinger explained to WCBS 880 that inconsistencies have surfaced when she first came to the U.S.
"In her official story, what she's repeated over the years, including in a statement today, is that she came here in 1996. But her biography, which came out earlier this year by Slovenian authors, places her here first in 1995, as does those photos the New York Post published, which ran in a February 1996 issue of a magazine, but were taken reportedly in New York late 1995," Schreckinger said.
Schreckinger said there are inconsistencies why Melania Trump would have to return to Europe to renew her visa if she was in the U.S. on a work visa.
"One of the inconsistencies that led us to the story in the first place is she said she did this by the books," Schreckinger told WCBS 880. "She would leave every few months to go to Europe to renew her visa and come back. But if she had been here on a work visa all along, she wouldn't have needed to do that because those work visas last for at least three years."
Schreckinger stated that there's enough inconsistencies in her story that "there's a good chance" she's in the U.S. illegally.
"Yes, there's a good chance. Obviously, we don't have all the details and those details haven't been forthcoming from Mrs. Trump, from the campaign, from the Trump organization, but certainly there's enough inconsistencies and enough information indicating she was here in '95 before she had a work visa and modeling that it's something that we will keep looking at certainly," Schreckinger said.
Schreckinger explained that Donald Trump's campaign said Melania Trump has "done things by the books."
"So we sent the campaign and the Trump organization a very detailed list of questions about what exactly the timing when she first came, what visas she used, what activities she was partaking in when she first came here. They got back to us with just a blanket statement that she came here legally, that she's done things by the books," he said.
Melania Trump said in a statement that there has been "inaccurate reporting and misinformation" about her immigration status.
"Let me set the record straight: I have at all times been in full compliance with the immigration laws of this country. Period. Any allegation to the contrary is simply untrue," she said.
Schreckinger said that if Melania Trump is here illegally, it could undermine the Republican presidential nominee's campaign.
"He's been pressed about you've married more than one immigrant, in fact, and he said, 'Yes, but they have come here legally and that's what matters.' And Melania has said the same thing when pressed about her husband's rhetoric on immigration and so it would certainly undermine the central tenet of Mr. Trump's campaign if, in fact, his wife had not come here by the books," the Politico reporter said.
Melania Trump has recently been scrutinized since her appearance at the Republican National Convention after she was accused of plagiarizing a portion of her speech. Her speechwriter, Meredith McIver, took the blame for lifting a passage from Michelle Obama's 2008 Democratic National Convention speech.
CBS News also reports that she never received a degree in design and architecture at University in Slovenia, which was a direct quote from her website.
Melania Trump has said she became a U.S. citizen in July 2006.
