Have the Trumps finally met their match? Michael Wolff, the US journalist and chronicler of America’s first (and worst) family has today announced that Melania is suing him for a billion dollars. But rather than cower to the Trumps’ lawfare, as so many others have, Wolff plans to turn the tables on them by dragging them to court and using its power to question them on their relationship with the financier and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Wolff says Melania Trump’s lawyers sent him a legal letter which demanded he apologise by October 21 over “false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading and inflammatory statements” he allegedly made about the first lady and her connection to the Epstein scandal, or face being sued for $1bn in damages.
In the legal response, Wolff’s lawyer defended the journalist, saying he was simply doing his job “diligently”, which included asking “important questions that deserve inquiry”. And overnight, Wolff dispatched his legal team to court in New York to ask for a so-called declaratory judgement, giving them the power to call witnesses into court and question them under oath.
Posting a video to Instagram, Wolff said: “For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Michael Wolff, I’ve written four books about Donald Trump and also, before his death, I extensively interviewed Jeffrey Epstein, not least of all about his relationship with Donald Trump.
“I’ve spoken publicly about aspects of those interviews, including the things Epstein said about his relationship with both Donald Trump and Melania Trump.
“Several days ago, I was notified by lawyers for the first lady that they intend to sue me for a billion dollars for some of those statements. Now they’ve threatened and sued other people for related statements about Melania Trump’s relationship with Epstein.
Suggested Reading
Is Jon Stewart laughing all the way to the White House?
“These are called SLAPP [Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation] suits. They may have no hope whatsoever of proving defamation, but these suits are filed anyway, or these suits are threatened to intimidate people from talking about this exact subject.
“I can’t live like that. In fact, to be perfectly honest, I’d like nothing better than to get Donald Trump and Melania Trump under oath in front of a court reporter and actually find out all of the details of their relationship with Epstein.
“Turning the tables on the Trumps and refusing to acquiesce to them, last night my lawyers went into court in New York and asked for a declaratory judgement – in other words, we will have subpoena power to call witnesses and to find out exactly what the relationship between Epstein and the Trumps was.”
Noting the case was likely to prove very costly, Wolff said it was a “very fruitful way to finally open this dark curtain”.
Chucking around legal threats has long been Donald Trump’s favoured way of silencing critics since way back in his New York real estate days, right up until just earlier this year when media company Paramount Global agreed to pay $16m to settle a legal dispute over an absurd complaint from the president regarding an interview it broadcast on CBS with Kamala Harris.
Even more absurdly, last month the president threatened to sue ABC after it gave talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel his job back, on the basis that Trump doesn’t like him. “Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative,” he wrote.
Michael Wolff, however, does not sound like one to back down. Could the family that lived by lawfare go down by it? Let’s hope so – get the popcorn in.
Most popular
Prince Andrew and an unforgivable secret
Paul Marshall, the man who owns the right
Hello, I’m Taiwanese. Give me all your money
Student antisemitism and the socialism of fools
