Published on Thu, Oct 29, 2026 | Last updated Thu, Oct 29, 2026 14:40 UTC, 1,641 words | 7 min read | Revision: 1

The Transparency Files are a series of articles based on the publicly released Epstein Files.

Through Trump’s Trail of Trauma, Part 1: Beatrice Keul

A Swiss model says Trump raped her at his 1993 pageant. Her account, and the paper trail around it

[Trigger warning: this article retells an allegation of rape. Please look after yourself.]

Part 1 of 5. Five women named by the House Judiciary Democrats’ report of Monday, October 26, 2026 as direct accusers of Trump.

TLDR; Keul says Trump raped her in a Plaza Hotel suite during his November 1993 pageant, after he promised her a visa and a university place and Epstein invited her to Mar-a-Lago. The report matches a contestant she describes to one in a 1997 court filing.

The HJC October 2026 report is from the minority staff of Rep. Jamie Raskin on the House Judiciary Committee. The full committee did not adopt it. It is a partisan document. It says Keul’s account rests “solely” on discussions between staff and Keul over several weeks (fn 49). The White House replied: “None of these allegations are true.” [ext: Newsweek, 2026]

Her account

In November 1993 Keul was 24, a Swiss model. Jill Harth recruited her for the Donald J. Trump American Dream Pageant, held in Atlantic City and at the Plaza Hotel in New York, which Trump then owned.

At a press luncheon, she says, Trump came over: “Finally we meet Ms. Keul,” pronouncing it “cool”. For at least 15 minutes he promised her a visa and a place at New York University. When she said she could handle her own visa, he said: “No no, my friend Paolo will take care of that,” meaning Paolo Zampolli.

Then, she says, Epstein came over: “I’m Jeffrey, Don’s best friend.” He invited her to a party at Mar-a-Lago: “We organize many parties with Don.” And: “Flights, accommodations, you don’t have to worry about anything.”

Later that day, she says, Trump’s representative took her upstairs to a suite. Inside, she says, Trump grabbed her from behind and raped her. Her dress was torn and she was left bleeding and bruised. She called it “brutal”. Afterwards, she says, Trump repeated the visa and NYU promises and told her to keep quiet: “[T]he show must go on.”

Her passport had been taken on arrival, she says. She finished the pageant in a “daze”. She was called, with four other models, to a private audition with John Casablancas. She went home to Switzerland. Months later Trump phoned her and renewed the offers. She said no.

The paper trail

In late October 2024 Keul gave the press an account of an encounter in a Plaza suite. [ext: The Independent, 2024] The report says she then described having talked “Trump down” when he “attempted to rape her”, and held back the full account until now (fn 49). The account she gave committee staff describes rape.

The report offers three supports (pp. 17-18):

1. A court filing. Harth’s 1997 lawsuit against Trump says that on or around Saturday, November 20, 1993, Trump demanded access to a young Czech contestant he called a “sex object”. Keul describes meeting an 18-year-old Czech contestant at the pageant who said she would marry Trump. The report says the two descriptions “largely” match. The filing came 29 years before the report, and the report does not say it names Keul.
2. The NYU lure. Survivors told the committee in January 2026 that Epstein promised them NYU places. Keul described Trump’s NYU promise in October 2024, before that pattern was public.
3. The phone call. A 1990s Epstein assistant told the New York Times that Epstein had her call pageant winners abroad and invite them to Florida. Trump’s call to Switzerland fits the same pattern.

In the DOJ December 2025 release, a federal prosecutor on the Maxwell investigation wrote on Tuesday, January 7, 2020, at 7:56 PM (19:56) Eastern, under the subject “RE: Epstein flight records”, that “the flight records we received yesterday reflect that Donald Trump traveled on Epstein’s private jet many more times than previously has been reported (or that we were aware)”. He “is listed as a passenger on at least eight flights between 1993 and 1996, including at least four flights on which Maxwell was also present”, and “[o]n one flight in 1993, he and Epstein are the only two listed passengers” (EFTA00028716 (archive)). Trump and Epstein flew together in 1993, the year Keul places her account. It fits the Epstein she describes, who called himself “Don’s best friend” and spoke of parties “with Don”.

The nearest in time is an FBI interview of the brother of a teenage girl Epstein knew in the mid-1990s, on Tuesday, January 14, 2020 (EFTA00173816 (archive); second copy EFTA00091904). He says she “was in a pageant in approximately 1996/1997 in which EPSTEIN helped her”, and that she “had told him that she met DONALD TRUMP at MAR-A-LAGO in approximately 1995/1996.” She told him at the time. Epstein, a pageant and Trump at Mar-a-Lago: the elements of Keul’s account, two to four years later.

An FBI interview puts Zampolli beside Epstein in the modelling business. A woman the report calls Epstein Assistant 1 told the FBI on Friday, July 12, 2019 that “ZEMPOLI was trying to buy Elite Models with EPSTEIN.” She also says “EPSTEIN was visiting ZEMPOLI at the agency when there were casting auditions for models. EPSTEIN was looking through portfolios” (EFTA00159321 (archive); second copy EFTA00090773). The FBI spells the name “ZEMPOLI”. This is the 2000s. In Keul’s account Trump hands her visa to Zampolli. Years later, by her account, Epstein is at Zampolli’s agency during castings.

Pageants recur. The DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility report on the 2006-2008 Florida investigation (EFTA02847284, in the DOJ February 2026 release) records a prosecutor’s report that the FBI had “wanted to arrest [Epstein] in [the] Virgin Islands during a beauty pageant . . . where he is a judge.” On Sunday, September 21, 2008 the Miss Virgin Islands Scholarship Organization wrote to the J. Epstein Foundation (EFTA01221555 (archive)): “we thank you and the J. Epstein Foundation for your continuing support of the Miss Virgin Islands Scholarship Organization”, “As promised, we are enclosing a report for this quarter on their activities since the pageant”, and “We would like to set a date for [the winner] to visit”. He judged a pageant in the Virgin Islands, and his foundation backed Miss Virgin Islands.

What DOJ’s releases leave out

DOJ’s releases do not name Keul. They also leave out Maria Farmer’s 1996 and 2006 FBI reports (report p. 27). CBS found that over 70% of about 5,000 documents in a Maxwell discovery index could not be located in what DOJ had released. [ext: CBS News, 2025]

The nearest the DOJ January 2026 release comes to that year is Epstein’s own line. On Tuesday, December 8, 2015, he wrote to Michael Wolff about “my 20 year old girlfriend in 93, that after two years i gave to donald” (EFTA00839258 (archive)). The report ties that email to a different woman.

Why this matters

The Epstein Files Transparency Act passed the House 427-1 and Trump signed it on Wednesday, November 19, 2025. The files came out after enormous pressure, and the Republicans who forced the vote saw their careers upended by Trump. [ext: NBC News, 2026] Rep. Thomas Massie lost his May 2026 primary to a Trump-backed challenger. [ext: NBC News, 2026; Newsweek, 2026] Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned from Congress, in part over her feud with Trump about the files. NBC News reported that only one of the four House Republicans behind the law will return to Congress next year. [ext: NBC News, 2026] Massie and Greene both tied their fates to the Epstein fight.

I think this is the tip of the iceberg. On DOJ’s public pages, video and audio files appear as one-page placeholders reading “No Images Produced”. The withholding listed above shows how much sits beneath the surface.

I don’t think it’s far-fetched that a foreign power holds some of this material and is using it to steer Trump away from his stance against forever wars and into wars fought for whoever holds it.

If you vote for candidates who support the impeachment and removal of Donald Trump, you can help prevent further military escalation and give the victims a pathway to justice.

Sources

The report. House Judiciary Committee Democratic staff, “‘We Have Certain Things in Common, Jeffrey’: The Case Against Donald Trump Emerging in the Epstein Files and DOJ’s Desperate Efforts to Cover it Up”, Mon, Oct 26, 2026, pp. 16-19, 27. PDF: https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2026-10.hjc-dems-staff-report-epstein-and-trump.pdf

External. The Independent, Thu, Oct 31, 2024 (Keul’s first public account). Harth v. Trump, S.D.N.Y. No. 97 Civ. 3135, filed Fri, Apr 25, 1997, as quoted by the report. New York Times, Thu, Dec 18, 2025, as cited by the report. CBS News, 2025 (Maxwell discovery index). Newsweek, 2026 (White House response; Massie primary). NBC News, 2026 (fate of the Republicans behind the Act).

Our own working notes: report cover sheet, Beatrice Keul.

Published on Thu, Oct 29, 2026 | Last updated Thu, Oct 29, 2026 14:40 UTC, 1,641 words | 7 min read | Revision: 1

The Transparency Files are a series of articles based on the publicly released Epstein Files.

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