By In a striking legal counterattack, author and journalist Michael Wolff has filed suit against First Lady Melania Trump after she threatened to sue him for $1 billion over his remarks linking the Trumps to Jeffrey Epstein.
The complaint, filed October 21 in New York state court, follows an October 15 demand letter from Melania Trump’s attorneys accusing Wolff of spreading “false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading and inflammatory statements” during a podcast interview and in a Daily Beast article. Her lawyers charged that Wolff’s comments—referencing her alleged involvement in efforts to minimize Epstein’s connection to the Trumps—inflicted severe reputational harm, according to Deadline.
Wolff, whose bestselling exposés Fire and Fury and Siege chronicled the Trump years, described his new legal move as “turning the tables on the Trumps.” In an online post, he said, “To be perfectly honest, I’d 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.”
The 15-page filing accuses the First Lady of using litigation threats to chill free expression. “Mrs. Trump’s claims are made for the purpose of harassing, intimidating, punishing, or otherwise maliciously inhibiting Mr. Wolff’s free exercise of speech,” the suit states. It goes on to argue that “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.”
Wolff seeks a declaratory judgment that his statements are protected, along with attorney’s fees and potential damages. His filing emphasizes the discovery process ahead, noting, “By her Threat Letter and this responsive Declaratory Action and related Anti-SLAPP Declaratory Action, Mrs. Trump has given Wolff subpoena power which he intends to exercise fully and expeditiously.”
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At issue are Wolff’s past claims—some drawn from interviews with Epstein before his 2019 death in federal custody—alleging that the Trumps’ marriage was a “sham,” that Donald Trump pursued Melania’s friends, that they first met at a party tied to Epstein, and that their initial encounter occurred aboard Epstein’s “Lolita Express” jet. Melania Trump’s representatives have demanded both compensation and a public apology, saying the remarks caused “overwhelming reputational and financial harm.”
Wolff’s legal team counters that the Trumps have sought to rewrite history. “What Mr. and Mrs. Trump are trying to promote is the false statement that they had almost nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein,” the filing contends. “That is why they are struggling to get Congress not to require disclosure of the Epstein files and it is why the Trump’s minions are threatening speakers and journalists such as Mr. Wolff with SLAPP suits to silence their criticism and to suppress and impede their ongoing inquiries.”
The case arrives amid renewed public focus on Epstein’s legacy and associates. Survivors have urged the release of sealed records—a move President Trump recently dismissed as a “Democrat Hoax.” The renewed scrutiny follows the publication of Nobody’s Girl, a memoir by former Mar-a-Lago employee Virginia Giuffre, and news of another forthcoming book from an Epstein victim coinciding with Prince Andrew’s renunciation of royal titles.
Wolff, who has teased a new project titled The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump (Redux), appeared in his Instagram video expressing eagerness to take the Trumps to court. His lawsuit has already revived interest in old photographs of Donald Trump, then-Melania Knauss, Epstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago in 2000, images once dismissed as relics of a bygone social scene.
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