Simona Mangiante — whose own background has come under scrutiny amid her vocal defense of her husband, George Papadopolous, who was convicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe — admitted to ABC News Monday that she provided the network a photo of her Italian passport where her birth year had been doctored.
“I did happen to lie about my age,” Mangiante said in a statement to ABC News. “I don’t owe anyone an explanation about it.”
The photo of her passport showed her age to be 34, according to ABC News. She’s now claiming to be 37, after discrepancies were noticed between the date of birth on the photo of her passport and other records identifying her birth date.
“That the picture of my passport was photoshopped to provoke journalist but that I was the one to set the record straight,” she said, according to ABC News, while claiming she also wanted to appear younger as she pursued an acting career in Hollywood.
Mangiante and Papadopolous have relocated to California from Chicago as he waits to serve two weeks in prison for lying to the FBI. His guilty plea — for false statements he made about his Russian contacts while advising the Trump campaign — was the first publicly unveiled by Mueller. Since his sentencing last month, Papadopolous has claimed to have been victim of an entrapment scheme.
