Melania Trump's lawyers are dragging out a legal fight to dodge a revelation about her marriage, according to a longtime Trump chronicler.
Michael Wolff, author of four books about President Donald Trump, said on Saturday's episode of "Inside Trump's Head" that the first lady's team is stalling his lawsuit against her because letting it move forward would expose that she and the president "are actually separated."
Wolff told co-host Joanna Coles that his lawyers filed an appeal Friday challenging a federal judge's ruling from several months ago. He sued the first lady in New York state court, but her lawyers moved the case to federal court by arguing that she lives in Florida while he lives in New York.
Wolff disputes her claim. He said the federal judge accepted her account and rejected his request to question her about where she actually lives. The appeal asks the court to allow that discovery, which he said would put the first lady in an uncomfortable spot.
"It would be very difficult for the first lady to acknowledge that she not only does not live with her husband in Washington, she doesn't live with her husband in Florida either," Wolff explained. "They are actually separated. So they will do everything to resist that."
He argued that her real home is Trump Tower.
"Melania Trump genuinely lives in New York City," Wolff insisted. "That's where she physically spends most of her time. That's where her businesses are located. That's where her social life occurs."
Her lawyers pointed to her voting in Florida, but Wolff argued that proves little, since anyone can vote in the state "just by virtue of having a piece of property there."
The appeal also challenges the judge's decision to abstain from ruling on New York state law, which Wolff said bars using the threat of a libel suit to intimidate otherwise legal speech.
"Their goal is to delay this as long as possible and to keep it from going forward, in other words, to stall it out," Wolff said. "They don't want to give any kind of evidence."