Veteran journalist Michael Wolff—known for his critical books on the Trump era is suing First Lady Melania Trump. The suit, filed in the Supreme Court of New York (Manhattan County) this Tuesday, accuses her of launching a “calculated campaign to destroy” his reputation.
Wolff wants the court to grant him the permission to question both Mrs. Trump and President Trump under oath about their alleged dealings and connection with Jeffrey Epstein. He says he would “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.”
Wolff claims that Mrs. Trump’s legal team threatened him with a $1 billion lawsuit unless he retracted statements linking her to financier Jeffrey Epstein and to her husband, President Donald J. Trump. According to his filing, a letter dated October 15 from her attorney Alejandro Brito demanded that Wolff “immediately retract the false, defamatory, disparaging and inflammatory statements made about Mrs. Trump.”
Wolff argues this isn’t just about a defamation threat, but about silencing a journalist’s inquiry on a matter of public concern. The lawsuit states that Mrs. Trump and the President “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.”
He further alleges that 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.” He also claims that the legal pressure is aimed at shutting down genuine inquiry into the Epstein matter: “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.”
The statements Ron Wolff made that drew the legal threat involve claims that Mrs. Trump was “very involved” in Epstein’s social circle (where she purportedly met her future husband), and that Donald Trump “first slept” with Melania on Epstein’s private jet. The filing stresses that Wolff never accused her of participating in Epstein’s criminal activity.
Mrs. Trump’s spokesperson, Nicholas Clemens, responded: “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.”
The dispute also features prior media fallout: An article published by The Daily Beast that referenced Wolff’s claims was later retracted after Mrs. Trump’s attorney challenged the headline and framing. The editor’s note read: “After … we reviewed the matter, The Beast has taken down the article and apologizes for any confusion or misunderstanding.”
