Former President Donald Trump’s first wife Ivana Trump’s links to Czechoslovakia, where the former model and ski instructor was born, as well as to several other nations, was the subject of a counterintelligence investigation, according to top-secret FBI files which were recently released, according to Bloomberg news.
While being extensively redacted, the 190 pages of confidential documents, which news media Bloomberg acquired and reported on, show how the matriarch of the Trump family was being investigated in the late 1980s and early 1990s because of her connections to a then-Communist country. Various highly sensitive and trustworthy sources which advise the FBI are cited in the files.
The launching of a “preliminary inquiry” by the FBI’s New York office is confirmed in a memo dated March 7, 1989. The details, however, are obscured and even the FBI states that it is unclear if the allegations against her were due to resentment of her celebrity status and money. It is noted that the investigation would be continued.
The circumstances surrounding Ivana Trump’s immigration from Czechoslovakia to Austria and her subsequent relocation from Austria to Canada are included as leads in the May 1989 paper. All mentions of her relationship or affiliation with a specific person or group have been removed. The records explore her life before meeting Donald Trump, including her parents and college years. They also trace her relationship with Donald Trump, including how they met, their marriage in 1977, and how they divorced.
After Ivana Trump’s passing last year, Bloomberg News filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and learned that the FBI possessed at least 900 records about her. The FBI released only the first 190 pages of the records following a legal struggle to order their early release, and it has said that it will disclose the remaining pages next month.
Ivana Trump was never charged with any wrongdoing. Although the records raise more questions than they offer answers about the actual motives for the investigation, the FBI’s counterintelligence division was involved in the investigation until 1991.
