Donald Trump failed to find a spot in his cabinet for any of Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty or David Evans. They were not mentioned in his 10,000-word address on the State of the Union. Nor did they feature prominently in his campaign for re-election to the White House.
And yet? Seligmann, Finnerty and Evans have all – unwittingly – played a pivotal role in shaping Trump’s political program. The ties that bind this president and these three lacrosse players stretch back two decades – to what they did while at Duke University. Or, more accurately, what they didn’t do.
On this day in 2006, the historic university, a green and Gothic corner of North Carolina, became engulfed in scandal after members of the men’s lacrosse team hosted a party. Among the guests that night? Crystal Mangum – a student at North Carolina Central who moonlighted as a stripper – and Kim Roberts, another erotic dancer.
They were hired to perform a striptease but, later that night, Mangum made allegations that caused tremors across America. Twenty years on, the aftershocks are still being felt in Washington DC – and beyond.
The stripper – a black single mother – claimed she had been dragged into a bathroom and raped, beaten and choked by white players. It was also alleged that a player had called the strippers ‘n****s’ and threatened to sodomize them with a broomstick.
Lawyers for 46 players insisted they were innocent but police launched an investigation and soon Seligmann, Finnerty and Evans had been arrested. They were charged with first-degree forcible rape, first-degree sexual offense, and kidnapping. ‘There’s no doubt a sexual assault took place,’ the then-district attorney said. All three faced more than 30 years behind bars.
Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s right-hand man, made his name while at Duke University
In March 2006, members of the Duke men’s lacrosse team hosted a party at this house
Crystal Mangum, a stripper, claimed she was raped, beaten and choked by players
(L-R) David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann were charged with first-degree forcible rape, first-degree sexual offense, and kidnapping
It soon became one of the most notorious scandals in college sports, sparking chaos in North Carolina and stoking tensions nationwide around race, inequality, sexual violence and justice.
Men’s lacrosse coach, Mike Pressler, was forced to resign after receiving death threats; the entire team was suspended; members of the New Black Panther Party marched on Duke in protest; one professor compared the team to ‘farm animals’; Duke president Richard Brodhead claimed that even ‘if they didn’t do it, whatever they did is bad enough.’
Among the few to fight the players’ corner from the start? A young columnist for the student newspaper named Stephen Miller.
Two decades on, Miller’s official role is ‘White House Deputy Chief of Staff.’ But that title belies his true proximity to the president. Miller has been a key adviser to Trump for a decade. The 40-year-old is considered the mastermind behind this administration’s anti-immigrant offensive; he has been nicknamed Trump’s ‘brain.’
There are few more controversial and influential voices in the White House and it was this case that propelled Miller into the national spotlight.
Back in the spring of 2006, he was a senior finishing his BA in philosophy who wrote a bi-weekly column for the Duke Chronicle. As this shocking scandal unfolded, however, he became a regular face on TV networks, cementing himself as a rising star of American conservatism.
His early columns provided a clear signpost of his political leanings. Headlines included ‘Welcome to Leftist University’ and ‘Sorry feminists.’ Among the topics in his crosshairs were patriotism and culture wars. But from March 2006, Miller shouted louder and louder about lacrosse.
He branded the case ‘bogus… beyond unconscionable,’ a ‘tragedy,’ a ‘depraved injustice,’ a ‘harrowing travesty,’ a ‘moral, social and legal outrage.’
As the shocking scandal unfolded, Miller became a regular face on TV networks including Fox
Miller – whose title is White House deputy chief of staff – has been called Trump’s ‘brain’
He was vindicated, too. In April 2007, Seligmann, Finnerty and Evans were exonerated. Many believed the case should never have dragged on for so long, given there were serious holes in the prosecution’s argument, numerous inconsistencies in Mangum’s account and a startling lack of evidence.
At the time, Roberts told police that allegations of rape were ‘a crock’ and, in 2024, Mangum finally admitted that she had lied.
By then, she was behind bars for murder in a separate case. Meanwhile, the players’ lives had been scarred forever and Miller had been catapulted into the corridors of power.
Trump claimed after Mangum’s confession that he always believed it was a ‘hoax.’ No one could accuse Miller of being wise after the fact. He spent his senior year on a crusade.
Venom spilled off the pages of the Duke Chronicle as Miller condemned the players’ treatment and railed against the handling of the case by the university and a district attorney who – Miller argued – was fueled by a mix of ‘incompetence and malice.’
‘There are few greater evils a person can suffer than to face trial for a heinous crime he did not commit,’ Miller wrote. And his articles did not go unnoticed.
In one column, Miller detailed a confrontation while at Duke. ‘You’re a racist,’ he was told. ‘You hate black people.’ Miller called the accusation ‘grotesquely false and baseless’ but said ‘sadly, it was far from the first time someone had created this paranoid illusion.’
Undeterred, the student – whose hair had yet to desert him – also appeared on prominent shows across CNN and Fox. He was a guest of hosts including Nancy Grace and Bill O’Reilly, his voice dripping with moral indignation.
Members of the New Black Panther Party march toward the gates of Duke University in protest
Miller called the case ‘bogus… beyond unconscionable,’ a ‘tragedy’ and a ‘depraved injustice’
‘This whole case has been [fraught] with irregularities and nonsense and deceptions,’ Miller told CNN. ‘There was never any real evidence against these players… this is insanity.’
Some might wonder why Miller – a man who appears to have scant interest in athletics – chose lacrosse as a hill to die on.
The truth? This case was never about sports. Not really. This case – as Miller saw it – was a fight for the soul of America. ‘An assault,’ he wrote, on ‘the core values of our nation.’
Over recent years, the MAGA movement has been underpinned by a conviction that good and evil are locked in a tug of war for America’s future and Miller’s columns suggest that – even two decades ago – he feared the apocalypse was nigh.
‘For many at Duke, the last year offered a horrifying tutorial in the moral bankruptcy of the left’s politically correct orthodoxy and the corruption of our culture at its hands,’ he wrote.
Miller dismissed suggestions that the case embodied issues such as ‘white privilege.’ Instead, he argued, Duke was a microcosm of a country imperiled.
‘This travesty has been allowed to continue because we live in a nation paralyzed by racial paranoia,’ he added. ‘This year-long persecution has been a dark exhibition of some of the worst tendencies in humans.’
He blamed political correctness, the Democrats and Hillary Clinton and claimed the players were targeted precisely because ‘they were white and their accuser black.’
Miller said – even then – that he ‘considers it his responsibility to do battle with the left.’ ‘I just hope to have shifted the debate a little in the right direction,’ he wrote.
Miller moved from Duke to Capitol Hill and was an aide to ex-attorney general Jeff Sessions
The ex-columnist, seen in 2016, was among the early supporters of Trump’s first bid for office
It took 13 months for all charges to be dropped. ‘The dark cloud of injustice that hung above our heads has finally cleared,’ Seligmann said at the time.
But the scandal still left a trail of ruin: the district attorney was disbarred and briefly jailed over his handling of the case; none of the accused played another game for Duke; the party house was knocked down; Duke settled lawsuits brought by Seligmann, Finnerty and Evans; Mangum was later jailed for stabbing her boyfriend to death.
Out of the rubble, however, a 22-year-old Miller made his way from Durham to Capitol Hill. He quickly scaled the GOP’s greasy pole and was among the early supporters of Trump’s first bid for the White House. He became his top advisor on policy since January 2016.
A decade on, Miller’s days as a columnist are behind him. Now he is helping to write the future of America.
