The best-selling author Michael Wolff is suing Melania Trump in an unprecedented court case—after she threatened to sue him for $1 billion for saying Jeffrey Epstein introduced her to Trump, and that they slept together on his plane. Via The Daily Beast:
The author, who is co-host of The Daily Beast’s hit podcast, Inside Trump’s Head, is accusing the First Lady of launching an assault on his free speech and trying to stifle “legitimate inquiry” into Jeffrey Epstein.
The case is the first time Melania Trump has been sued as First Lady and appears to be the first time a president’s wife has been the subject of court action. Wolff is asking the court for permission to question Melania and Donald Trump under oath about their dealings with Epstein.
Wolff’s attorneys filed the case in a New York State court late Tuesday after the First Lady’s legal team sent him a letter threatening a lawsuit for “over $1 billion in damages.”
Melania accused Wolff of making “false, defamatory, and lewd statements” in a letter from her attorney Alejandro Brito, saying he had made “extremely salacious” allegations that have reached tens of millions of people worldwide. The letter from Brito demanded that he retract statements including that Epstein had claimed Melania first slept with Trump on the late pedophile’s private jet—or face being sued for at least $1 billion.
As he points out, he's written four books about the famously litigious Trump and has never been sued.
Wolff said bringing the case was a “difficult decision” and said, “I did not want to be in a lawsuit, but I also am a journalist and have been one for 40 years.
“I’ve written four books about Donald Trump and have never been sued. Mrs. Trump’s threatened lawsuit is what lawyers call a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, a SLAPP suit. Its purpose was to intimidate and silence me, as Donald Trump has done to so many news organizations and reporters.
“Fortunately, New York has an Anti-SLAPP law. This law protects people sued for making statements involving matters of public concern. In order to avail myself of this protection, I choose to begin an action against her, rather than have her threats hanging over my head indefinitely.”
Wolff is asking the court to shut down Melania Trump’s threats and pay punitive damages—and to allow him to question her and her husband under oath about their relationships with Epstein.
