Left: Michael Wolff (CNN/YouTube). Right: First Lady Melania Trump (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images).
First Lady Melania Trump is attempting to “silence and suppress” author Michael Wolff”s First Amendment rights by threatening to sue him for $1 billion over a tell-all book he’s getting ready to publish, which possibly contains details about her alleged ties to Jeffrey Epstein, a new lawsuit from Wolff says.
“Mrs. Trump and her ‘unitary executive’ husband along with their MAGA myrmidons have made a practice of threatening those who speak against them,” Wolff charges in a 17-page legal complaint filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court in New York.
“These threatened legal actions are designed to create a climate of fear in the nation so that people cannot freely or confidently exercise their First Amendment rights,” the complaint blasts. “The threats are also intended to shut down legitimate inquiry into the Epstein matter which the Trumps and their collaborators have at every turn sought to impede and suppress.”
Wolff has penned a number of bestselling books about Trump and has been a vocal critic of the president’s alleged ties to Epstein, along with Melania Trump’s alleged connections to the deceased financier. He has been quoted in interviews and his own complaint as saying “First Lady Melania could be the missing link in President Trump’s ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.”
Melania has fired back with threats to file a defamation lawsuit against Wolff for “over $1 billion” should he go through with publishing his latest tell-all, “The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump (Redux),” according to Wolff.
In his complaint, Wolff insists that “it is not defamatory to suggest that Mrs. Trump could have information about her husband, Mr. Epstein, or her associates that would provide important information regarding both men.”
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The “Fire and Fury” author explains that “among many other ties, Mrs. Trump was a model with ID Models run by a friend of many years of both Mr. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein.” Wolff says that Melania Trump met Donald Trump at a New York Kit Kat Club party hosted by ID Models “and its owner.”
Wolff has accused Melania Trump of abusing New York’s civil rights laws to try and ultimately squash his book plans.
He alleges that the Trumps have used “costly” SLAPP actions — aka “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation” suits — against people and entities in the past as a way to “silence their speech, to intimidate their critics generally, and to extract unjustified payments and North Korean style confessions and apologies,” per the complaint.
“Mr. Wolff is a journalist who has done his job diligently, reporting what he knows; identifying what he does not know; and asking important questions that deserve inquiry,” Wolff’s legal team alleges. “In the face of the threat letter and its attack on his lawful reporting, Mr. Wolff has no choice but to defend himself and to assert his rights under the Constitution, the New York Constitution and the anti-SLAPP Law. He therefore brings this declaratory action and this related anti-SLAPP cause of action.”
Wolff claims that the Trumps are trying to promote the “false statement” that they had “almost nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein,” which has led to calls for the release of the so-called “Epstein files” that allegedly contain “client lists” linking elites to Epstein.
Trump has repeatedly stated that the “Epstein files” are a “Democrat hoax” being used to damage his reputation. He made comments in September condemning them after Epstein accusers held news conferences and called for the release of the files, according to PBS. Lawmakers have also been trying to get information released on Capitol Hill that is allegedly related to the “Epstein files,” to no avail.
“That is why they are struggling to get Congress not to require disclosure of the ‘Epstein files’ and it is why the Trump’s minions are threatening speakers and journalists such as Mr. Wolff with SLAPP suits to silence their criticism and to suppress and impede their ongoing inquiries,” Wolff asserts in his complaint.
The 72-year-old writer says it is “proper to inquire and find out what happened” during Trump’s and Epstein’s “10 years of pursuing models, including super models, runway models, catalog models, Eastern European models, and girls who just dreamed of being models.” Wolff states in his complaint that this will be “one of the zones of inquiry that this lawsuit will have to undertake.”
Libel accusations being hurled by Melania Trump “lack substantial basis in law or in fact” and “cannot overcome Constitutional protections,” according to Wolff.
“Mrs. Trump’s claims are made for the purpose of harassing, intimidating, punishing, or otherwise maliciously inhibiting Mr. Wolff’s free exercise of speech,” the complaint concludes. “[Wolff] seeks a declaration of his rights under the anti-SLAPP law such that if Mrs. Trump continues or advances her claims against him or initiates or commences further claims against Mr. Wolff, that she will be liable to him for his costs, attorney’s fees, other compensatory damages and punitive damages.”
