The Norwegian Nobel Committee has confirmed that a nomination for Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize was submitted using a stolen identity. Committee secretary Olav Njolstad stated that the same individual appears to have been responsible for a similar forged nomination in 2017.
Njolstad declined to identify the person, noting that Norwegian police have been informed. He described the incident as unprecedented, saying, 'As far as I know, this is the first example of someone nominating someone by stealing another person’s identity.'
The committee receives many invalid nominations each year, typically from unqualified nominators. However, this case marks the first known instance of identity theft in the nomination process. The names of candidates are kept secret for 50 years, though nominators—such as parliament members, academics, and former laureates—may disclose them publicly.
In January, Henrik Urdal, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, revealed that Trump had been nominated for the 2018 prize but said the nomination lacked 'a strong academic justification.' Urdal noted that an American with nominating rights had informed him of the submission but did not name the individual.
