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A federal judge has dismissed journalist Michael Wolff\u2019s lawsuit against First Lady Melania Trump, rejecting what the court called a \u201ccontorted\u201d legal strategy and clearing the way for Trump\u2019s $1 billion defamation claim to proceed.<\/p>\n
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Manhattan Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, a Trump appointee, found that while federal courts have jurisdiction over the case, she would decline to exercise it. \u201cIt\u2019s an inappropriate level of tactical gamesmanship,\u201d Vyskocil said, adding she would not be \u201cdrafted to oversee an abusively presented spat.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The dismissal stems from competing legal filings between Wolff and the First Lady over statements he made regarding her connection to Jeffrey Epstein. Trump\u2019s legal team, led by attorney Alejandro Brito, had moved Wolff\u2019s original state court complaint to federal court, where Vyskocil ultimately ruled the case should return to be \u201clitigated like any other.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dispute Over Statements<\/p>\n
Wolff claimed in his lawsuit that the president and First Lady \u201chave made a practice of threatening those who speak against them\u201d using costly legal actions. He argued they deployed such tactics \u201cto silence their speech, to intimidate their critics generally, and to extract unjustified payments.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his complaint, Wolff said he never accused the First Lady of involvement with criminal activity related to Epstein. However, 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 receiving a legal letter from Brito.<\/p>\n
A Melania Trump spokesperson responded to the ruling by stating 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
The First Lady\u2019s Response<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s legal team had previously claimed that Wolff\u2019s statements caused her \u201coverwhelming reputational and financial harm.\u201d The First Lady denied any association with Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of child sex trafficking.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Melania Trump said, \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<\/p>\n
Congressional Response<\/p>\n
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace praised the First Lady for her stance, saying, \u201cMelania Trump stands with Epstein victims,\u201d and citing her advocacy for legislation addressing the distribution of fake intimate images. \u201cThe truth will prevail,\u201d Mace said.<\/p>\n
Democrat Rep. Robert Garcia called for expanded congressional action on the matter, urging, \u201cWe encourage Chairman Comer to schedule a hearing immediately.\u201d Garcia said the remarks renewed attention on the broader investigation and called on lawmakers to allow victims to testify under oath.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A federal judge has dismissed journalist Michael Wolff\u2019s lawsuit against First Lady Melania Trump, rejecting what the court called a \u201ccontorted\u201d legal strategy and clearing the way for Trump\u2019s … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11995"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11998,"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11995\/revisions\/11998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}