Keith Gessen, a professor at the Columbia School of Journalism, who posted the letter on Twitter told BuzzFeed he got the document from an attendee of the sex workshop Rybka was holding — a man named Pavlo Yunko who is serving as Rybka's contact with the media.

Yunko confirmed to BuzzFeed News via WhatsApp that he was the one who'd taken the picture of the letter. The letter, he said, was provided to a US embassy official in Bangkok but he has not heard back from them yet. Yunko also noted that he was an acquaintance of Rybka and neither she nor the people arrested alongside her had shown him any evidence of their claims about Trump.

The State Department directed questions about asylum to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS did not immediately respond to BuzzFeed News' request for comment.