Author Michael Wolff alleged in a lawsuit that First Lady Melania Trump threatened to sue him if he did not retract defamatory statements pertaining to her interactions with Jeffrey Epstein.
Melania Trump spokesperson Nicholas Clemens said in a statement on the matter, “First Lady Melania Trump is proud to continue standing up to those who spread malicious and defamatory falsehoods as they desperately try to get undeserved attention and money from their unlawful conduct.”
Wolff claimed in his lawsuit, as reported by the Associated Press, that Mrs. Trump and President Donald Trump “have made a practice of threatening those who speak against them” with legal actions “to silence their speech, to intimidate their critics generally, and to extract unjustified payments and North Korean style confessions and apologies.” He further claimed the threats “are designed to create a climate of fear in the nation so that people cannot freely or confidently exercise their First Amendment rights.”
The lawsuit states that Wolff never said the First Lady was involved in Epstein’s criminal activities, but rather argued that it was fair to “find out what happened in Mr. Trump’s and Epstein’s 10 years of pursuing models, including supermodels, runway models, catalog models, Eastern European models, and girls who just dreamed of being models.”
The development stems from statements Wolff made to “The Daily Beast,” which later apologized for and retracted the podcast segment. “Upon reflection, we have determined that the article did not meet our standards and has therefore been removed from our platforms.”
“In response to a letter from the First Lady’s attorneys, The Daily Beast has also removed a portion of an episode of The Daily Beast Podcast titled ‘Trump’s Epstein Scandal Can’t Stop Won’t Stop’ referencing the First Lady. The First Lady points to her bestselling book Melania as the definitive account of her life story. We apologize to the First Lady and our readers,” the outlet added.
