Author sues Melania Trump for threatening him over Epstein reporting

Journalist and author Michael Wolff has sued First Lady Melania Trump after her legal team threatened action against him over an article alleging that she was "very involved" in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

Last month, The Daily Beast retracted a report based on Wolff's research after receiving legal threats from the first lady's team. Threats were later sent directly to Wolff.

"This correspondence serves as a demand under Florida Statute § 770.011 that you immediately retract and apologize for the false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements made about Mrs. Trump, which were published by The Daily Beast Company, LLC ('The Daily Beast'), and contained in the article titled 'Melania Trump 'Very Involved' in Epstein Scandal: Author," Trump's attorneys wrote. "Failure to comply will leave Mrs. Trump with no choice but to pursue any and all legal rights and remedies available to recover the overwhelming financial and reputational harm that you have caused her to suffer."

In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, attorneys for Wolff asked for damages under New York's anti-SLAPP law, which was designed to prevent intimidation lawsuits.

"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," the lawsuit noted. "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 asked the court to find the first lady to be liable for costs, attorney's fees, compensatory damages, and punitive damages "on the grounds that the claims were made by Mrs. Trump for the sole purpose of harassing, intimidating, punishing, or otherwise maliciously inhibiting Mr. Wolff's free exercise of speech."