Author Michael Wolff said he planned to use his legal bid against first lady Melania Trump to question her — and potentially her husband, President Donald Trump — about her family’s ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Wolff sued the first lady earlier this week after he said she threatened him with a $1 billion libel lawsuit over claims about how she and the president met. Wolff claimed on a Daily Beast podcast that Epstein told him the two Trumps first slept together on Epstein’s private plane, a claim she disputed.
The Daily Beast eventually retracted its article on the matter, apologized for the story and noted how Melania Trump wrote in her memoir, “Melania,” that she and Donald Trump met at the Kit Kat Club in New York in 1998. Wolff has written multiple best-selling books related to President Trump, though his books have faced criticism for factual errors and lax journalistic standards.
“I can subpoena the first lady, the president, and anyone else who might shed light on the relationship of Donald Trump and Melania Trump to Jeffrey Epstein,” Wolff said on the Beast’s podcast, “Inside Trump’s Head” on Thursday, “In other words, this might be a way to actually get to the bottom of this story, to open the curtain, the dark curtain. And we’ll see how they feel about that.”
A spokesperson for the first lady said: “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 said on the podcast he believed his lawsuit would also be another mechanism to release the “Epstein files,” a group of documents in government possession that people believe would expose a ring of public officials who Epstein let abuse underage girls.
“This lawsuit is an opportunity to reconstruct their lives together,” he said. “This is precisely what Donald Trump wants covered up.”
Wolff, relying on New York’s anti-SLAPP laws that prevents public officials from shutting down journalism with legal complaints, is seeking punitive damages and demanding that Melania Trump back down from her threats. It came as Wolff, according to the complaint, was considering writing an Epstein-related book.
“[Mrs. Trump’s claims] impede and chill future reporting and writing that Mr. Wolff has committed to doing regarding Epstein, Mr. Trump and Mrs. Trump,” the complaint read. “In many respects that is the primary purpose of these claims.”
