According to The Washington Post, Melania ultimately obtained an EB-1 “Einstein visa,” reserved for individuals with extraordinary ability. Verglas photographed her again in 2011 for Haute Living.
“I loved her beauty, stature, and elegance,” Verglas told WWD of the first lady in September 2024. “She was pretty reserved. She was not an extroverted person. We were never close, but we worked together a dozen times. She was always very professional and nice to the staff and the people on the team around us.”
During the 2016 election, Verglas sent a cease-and-desist letter to a PAC for using his racy GQ photos of Melania in an ad campaign, telling Page Six, “When I work with people, there is a trust. So I just wanted to assure her I was in shock.”
The publisher of Melania’s memoir, Skyhorse, contacted Verglas in 2024 to request the photos he captured of her during the British GQ shoot, Sports Illustrated, and others for the book.
“I’m glad these images are resurfacing like this, and I’m happy that she’s embracing them, and that her and her husband like them, and it makes me happy that I did not do such a bad job in the end,” Verglas told Vanity Fair of the GQ spread. “I see that she’s celebrating her beauty and her body, those images and others.”
Melania declined to comment.
Throughout the years, Epstein continued to maintain the relationship with Verglas. In 2017, he wrote Verglas, “Woody Allen is looking for a beautiful 20-24 girl to play a college girl in a comedy. Thoughts?”
In 2015 an unknown sender forwarded Epstein an article shared by Verglas about scopolamine—a powerful drug derived from trumpet plants reported to cause memory loss and extreme suggestibility. The email subject was of a Daily Mail article titled “Scopolamine: Powerful drug growing in the forests of Colombia that ELIMINATES free will.”
Epstein, according to two separate emails, appeared to have been growing the toxic Trumpet plant, which the drug is derived from, in his nursery. The plant is also referred to as Brugmansia or “Angel’s Trumpet” for its vibrant bell shape and is commonly found in gardens.
“Ask chris about my trumpet plants at nursery?” Epstein wrote in a 2014 email to Ann Rodriguez, who appears to have been the general manager of his private island, Little St. James, according to Miami New Times. He also mentioned “Trumpet flowers” in a 2013 email to Rodriguez, alongside other landscaping items like pool trees, blocking trees, and new palms.
Scopolamine is used medically to treat motion sickness, administered in controlled doses to block certain receptors in the nervous system. In illicit contexts, it has been linked to trafficking networks and often evades routine toxicology screens.
“Although I don’t remember the context surrounding this email, which was sent more than 10 years ago to many people, including members of my family,” Verglas said in a statement to VF, “I do know that at the time it was a subject of great concern and that everyone was talking about it with horror. How could I have imagined that Mr. Epstein was secretly cultivating them, as I recently discovered in the files made public by the US government?”
