Post editor debunks conspiracy theories about Melania Trump nudes
By now, the whole world has seen the topless pictures of Melania Trump that ran in the New York Post earlier this week. But how did the paper get them?
One theory circulating online is that the pictures came from the candidate himself. But in a memo to employees on Friday, Post editor in chief Steven Lynch dismissed the conspiracy theorists and insisted the pictures were found by one of his reporters.
The photos of Melania, a fashion model who became Trump’s third wife in 2005, were taken for the January 1996 issue of Max, a defunct French men’s magazine. On Sunday, the Post plastered one of the topless shots on its front page with the headline “THE OGLE OFFICE.” The paper followed that with a story on Monday featuring photos of Melania posing alongside another nude female model in what the Post dubbed a “MENAGE A TRUMP.”
Speculation quickly surfaced that Trump leaked the photos himself to a friendly publication to control the news cycle amid a spate of negative headlines. That account was supported by a source who is not part of the Trump campaign but regularly speaks to Trump associates. “He has a bad weekend, so what does he do? He throws it out there,” the source told Yahoo News. Trump, according to the source, is particularly fond of the shot showing Melania with the other woman and keeps it in his desk to show visitors — to which Jason Miller, Trump’s senior communications adviser, responded: “That’s just nonsense.”
But in a memo to the newsroom, Post editor Lynch disputed the idea the photos were planted. He said the Post became aware of the pictures when a reporter had a chance encounter.
“True story: [reporter] Isabel Vincent was on vacation in France when she met someone who said, ‘Hey, I know a photographer who shot Melania Trump in the 1990s.’ The conspiracy theorists will be so disappointed,” Lynch wrote.
Lynch went on to call the pictures “a crazy story in a crazy election year.” He boasted that the two stories featuring the photos were viewed by millions of people online and that the first article was the “second-largest trafficked story ever to nypost.com.”
The photos were taken by French photographer Jarl Alexandre Alé de Basseville, who claims to be “one of the last direct descendants of the lineage of Viking and Norman kings.” In a conversation with Yahoo News on Friday, de Basseville said he didn’t know how the Post found out about his pictures. The photographer said the paper approached him within the past two weeks, though he could not recall the exact timeline. He also claimed that he doesn’t have a copy of his dated contract with the Post.
“I don’t have it on me because I crushed it,” de Basseville explained. “I’m a punk. I crush all my mail.”
However, de Basseville said he’d be very happy if Trump told the paper about his pictures.
“It’s great if he did that, you know? Fantastic.”
De Basseville said he would be flattered if Trump actually has a copy of the picture in his desk.
“That’s a compliment,” de Basseville said. “You know?“
