As part of a partnership with FactCheck.org, CNN’s Jake Tapper examines the accuracy of Donald Trump’s claim that Ted Cruz provided a photo of Melania Trump to a supporting super PAC.
FROM FACTCHECK.ORG:
Donald Trump has accused Sen. Ted Cruz’s campaign of buying the rights to a racy photo of Trump’s wife, Melania, and giving the photo to a super PAC that used it in an ad. But Trump has provided no evidence of that, and the photographer who took the photo told us no one contacted him to buy the rights.
The anti-Trump super PAC, Make America Awesome, used a photo that originally was published in a 2000 photo spread in British GQ, and republished on March 4 online by the magazine. The photo shows Melania, a model and then Trump’s girlfriend, nude, but strategically arranged on a fur and handcuffed to a briefcase. Make America Awesome used the photo in a still Facebook ad, targeting Mormon voters in Utah ahead of the March 22 state Republican caucuses. The ad read, “Meet Melania Trump. Your Next First Lady. Or, You Could Support Ted Cruz on Tuesday.”