{"id":3242,"date":"2026-06-01T12:20:34","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T12:20:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartorangemedia.com\/?p=3242"},"modified":"2026-06-01T12:20:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T12:20:34","slug":"judge-tosses-wolff-suit-clearing-path-for-1b-melania-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartorangemedia.com\/?p=3242","title":{"rendered":"Judge Tosses Wolff Suit, Clearing Path For $1B Melania Claim"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by journalist Michael Wolff against First Lady Melania Trump, calling it a \u201ccontorted\u201d attempt and \u201cnot how federal courts work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolff filed suit against Trump seeking to block her from suing him for $1 billion for alleged defamatory claims he made regarding her association with Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by journalist Michael Wolff against First Lady Melania Trump, calling it a \u201ccontorted\u201d attempt and \u201cnot how federal courts work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolff filed suit against Trump seeking to block her from suing him for $1 billion for alleged defamatory claims he made regarding her association with Jeffrey Epstein.\u201cIt\u2019s an inappropriate level of tactical gamesmanship,\u201d said Manhattan Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, an appointee of President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vyskocil said she would not be \u201cdrafted to oversee an abusively presented spat,\u201d yet she recognized that both sides have a \u201creal dispute.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, the first lady\u2019s lawyer issued Wolff a letter demanding he delete the statements he made about Trump and threatening that she would have \u201cno alternative\u201d but to sue him if he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That spurred him to sue her in state court in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s lawyer, Alejandro Brito, had the complaint moved to federal court, where Vyskocil declared that while federal court does have jurisdiction, she was declining to exercise it and \u201cdismisses this case to be litigated like any other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Melania Trump spokesperson said that the first lady \u201cis proud to continue standing up to, and fighting against, those who spread malicious and defamatory falsehoods as they desperately try to get undeserved attention and money from their unlawful conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 56-year-old\u2019s lawyer previously claimed that Wolff\u2019s statements caused her \u201coverwhelming reputational and financial harm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first lady has denied any association with Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of child sex trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today,\u201d the first lady said in an April press conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe individuals lying about me are devoid of ethical standards, humility, and respect. I do not object to their ignorance, but rather I reject their mean-spirited attempts to defame my reputation,\u201d she added at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolff claimed in his lawsuit that the president and first lady \u201chave made a practice of threatening those who speak against them\u201d with costly legal actions \u201cto silence their speech, to intimidate their critics generally, and to extract unjustified payments and North Korean-style confessions and apologies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that some of his statements were taken out of context and some were protected speech, including a statement he made that claimed the Trumps have a \u201csham marriage, trophy marriage,\u201d that his lawsuit says was a \u201cfair and justified\u201d opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also said in his lawsuit that Wolff never accused the first lady of being involved with criminal activity associated with Epstein.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Daily Beast retracted an article last summer, titled \u201cMelania Trump \u2018Very Involved\u2019 in Epstein Scandal: Author,\u201d which was based on an interview with Wolff, after the outlet received a letter from Brito.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the interview that formed the basis for the retracted piece, Wolff said he reported that the first lady was \u201cbehind the scenes\u201d dealing with the situation at the White House, but was not involved criminally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace praised Melania Trump at the time for coming out against Epstein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMelania Trump stands with Epstein victims,\u201d Mace said, citing the first lady\u2019s advocacy for legislation addressing the distribution of fake intimate images. \u201cThe truth will prevail.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democratic lawmakers also commented following the statement.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

Rep. Robert Garcia called for a public hearing, writing, \u201cWe agree with First Lady Melania Trump\u2019s call for a public hearing,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cWe encourage Chairman Comer to schedule a hearing immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garcia said the remarks renewed attention on the broader investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her remarks, Melania Trump called on Congress to take action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow is the time for Congress to act,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She urged lawmakers to allow victims to testify under oath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article may contain commentary which reflects the author\u2019s opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by journalist Michael Wolff against First Lady Melania Trump, calling it a \u201ccontorted\u201d attempt and \u201cnot how federal courts work.\u201d Wolff filed suit against Trump seeking to block her from suing him for $1 billion for alleged defamatory claims he made regarding her association with Jeffrey Epstein. A federal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartorangemedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartorangemedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartorangemedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartorangemedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartorangemedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3242"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/smartorangemedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3244,"href":"https:\/\/smartorangemedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3242\/revisions\/3244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartorangemedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartorangemedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartorangemedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartorangemedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}