University of Pennsylvania professor wants to investigate claim Trump faked admission exam

A University of Pennsylvania professor is asking the school to launch a probe into the allegations that President Trump faked his admission exam. 

Six faculty members first asked the school’s provost to investigate the claims in mid-July after the president’s niece, Mary Trump, published a book that claims Trump paid someone to take his SATs.

At the time the provost told Eric Orts, one of the professors asking for the probe, that although they found the allegations concerning, “this situation occurred too far in the past to make a useful or probative factual inquiry possible,” according to the Daily Pennsylvanian, a student-run publication.

The Washington Post last weekend published secretly recorded audio from Trump’s sister Maryanne Trump Barry in which she said “he got into University of Pennsylvania because he had somebody take the exams.” 

Mary Trump said it was a man named Joe Shapiro. The widow of a friend of Trump’s named Joe Shapiro at UPenn has said her husband did not take the exams for President Trump, but Mary Trump says it is another man with the same name. 

Orts, a professor of legal studies and business ethics at the UPenn’s Wharton School, told the Post he recontacted the provost saying the new audio constituted the kind of “new evidence” they asked for. 

UPenn did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Hill. The provost also did not respond to Orts at the time of the Post’s reporting.

The Trump campaign and White House have dismissed the audio from Barry, with one adviser likening their relationship to a “sibling rivalry.”

The president has previously questioned the credentials of several Democratic politicians, including former President Obama. While Obama was in office, Trump pledged to make a $5 million donation to a charity if he released his college applications and transcripts. 

Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen said during a congressional testimony that he took legal measures to ensure the president’s academic records were not leaked.

Fordham University, where the president was a student from 1964 to 1966, later confirmed Cohen threatened legal action. Trump graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968 after transferring from Fordham.