Donald Trump’s campaign paid more than $22,000 to a Florida model with little apparent political experience to work as a local office manager, Heat Street has learned after examining campaign-finance reports.
Searches for Ashley Byers pull up a few references to her work for the Trump campaign — plus dozens of photos of Byers posing in swimsuits and lingerie. That is, until recently, when Byers scrubbed or deleted several online accounts.
Before Byers took down an Instagram under her own name and made most of her Facebook private, we took screen shots of several photos. We’ve since found her other accounts — including an Instagram, as well as lesser-known sites Pictaram, Insharee and Imgrum — under the name AshleyChristinaofficial.
The Trump campaign had Byers on the payroll as an office manager in the Florida headquarters from December to at least May, paying her $3,000 a month, in addition to reimbursing her travel, according to the latest FEC filings.
At least once, Byers was dispatched out of state, speaking in support of Trump in May to a crowd of Republicans in Peoria, Illinois. She was introduced as a “retired ballerina” now modeling, according to one local media report.
Byers did not respond to requests for an interview sent to her Trump campaign phone number and email, nor to a message sent to her Facebook account.