A federal judge dismissed Michael Wolff‘s lawsuit against First Lady Melania Trump, concluding that the journalist’s litigation was an “inappropriate level of tactical gamesmanship.”
“While Plaintiff and the First Lady have a real dispute, they must litigate it according to the same procedures as everyone else,” U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil wrote in her ruling, issued on Friday.
Wolff sued the first lady in October after receiving a legal threat from the first lady’s lawyer, over statements he made in a podcast and a Daily Beast article about her role in managing the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, among other comments.
Wolff, who has written several books about Donald Trump, had sought a declaratory ruling from the court that his comments were not actionable libel claims, and that if the first lady proceeded with a $1 billion lawsuit, she would be liable for costs, fees and compensatory and punitive damages.
The judge, appointed by Donald Trump in his first term, wrote in her ruling, “There are many features of this case that make it complicated: the prominence of the personalities involved, the scandalizing content of the underlying statements, and, frankly, an inappropriate level of tactical gamesmanship. But the outcome is simple. The Court will not be conscripted to oversee an abusively presented spat and so declines to reach the merits here.”
In a statement on Instagram, Wolff noted that the judge abstained from ruling on the merits of the case, something that “opens all kinds of legal doors for us to walk through.”
“In other words, our goals remain the same and as reachable. We want Melania Trump to testify about her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein,” Wolff said. He reiterated that the lawsuit also challenged the Trumps’ use of the power of the White House to challenge the media.
The first lady last month delivered a statement at the White House denying that she had a relationship with Epstein, and denying that he introduced her to Trump.
Wolff’s attorneys wrote in his lawsuit, “Mrs. Trump and her ‘unitary executive’ husband along with their MAGA myrmidons have made a practice of threatening those who speak against them with costly SLAPP actions in order to silence their speech, to intimidate their critics generally, and to extract unjustified payments and North Korean-style confessions and apologies.”
A spokesperson for the first lady told the AP that she “is proud to continue standing up to, and fighting against, those who spread malicious and defamatory falsehoods as they desperately try to get undeserved attention and money from their unlawful conduct.”
English (US) ·