Author Michael Wolff is suing First Lady Melania Trump in a Manhattan court over her effort to block publication of his planned tell-all book that could include details about her ties to notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, the Daily News has learned.
Wolff, who has penned four best-selling books about President Trump, accuses Melania Trump of launching a campaign of threats to intimidate him from digging deeper into the first couple’s friendship with Epstein, according to legal papers obtained by The News.
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“These threatened legal actions are designed to create a climate of fear in the nation so that people cannot freely or confidently exercise their First Amendment rights,” Wolff’s 17-page claim reads. “The threats are also intended to shut down legitimate inquiry into the Epstein matter.”
Wolff filed his complaint against Melania Trump in Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday. It says she threatened last week to sue him for $1 billion if he did not pull the plug on the book project and pay compensation to her by 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
Wolff, who claims to have conducted hours of interviews with Epstein, stands by his disclosure that Epstein claimed the Trumps first had sex while flying on his notorious private jet.
He also insists that the Trumps’ marriage is a “sham” and that Melania Trump is a driving force behind her husband’s efforts to turn the page on the politically damaging scandal.
The legal papers cite New York’s civil rights laws and the state’s anti-SLAPP law, which aims to prevent “strategic lawsuits against public participation” — essentially lawsuits intended to hinder one’s First Amendment right to free speech.
Wolff says Melania Trump’s main goal is to use her husband’s virtually unchecked power to block publication of the forthcoming book, “The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump (Redux).”
“Significantly, the claims impede and chill future reporting and writing that Mr. Wolff has committed to doing regarding Epstein (and the Trumps),” the complaint adds.
Wolff claims Melania Trump’s effort to keep his book from being published is part of the president’s mostly successful effort to get major media outlets to bow to his demands for “unjustified payments and North Korean-style confessions and apologies.”
CBS News and ABC News have both paid multimillion dollar settlements after President Trump filed suits that most legal analysts initially dismissed as flimsy or worse.
The president has also filed huge lawsuits against The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times over critical reporting.
Wolff revealed some salacious details of Melania and Donald Trump’s cozy ties to Epstein in a podcast with the Daily Beast in July. The news site later retracted and apologized to Melania Trump for a story it published based on the claims made by Wolff.
The Trumps admit having been very good friends with Epstein and convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell from Palm Beach social circles.
President Trump says he cut off ties after the superwealthy sex trafficker “poached” female Mar-a-Lago employees and acted like a “creep.”
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial in Manhattan Federal Court. Maxwell is serving a federal prison sentence after being convicted of aiding and taking part in his sex-trafficking scheme
Trump and his MAGA allies repeatedly called for release of all government files related to the Epstein scandal before he won back the White House.
He pulled a U-turn after Attorney General Pam Bondi briefed him that his name appeared many times in the files, although there is no evidence of any wrongdoing by him.
Trump now derides the outcry over Epstein as a “Democrat hoax.” His Republican allies are battling to prevent critics from passing a measure demanding the release of all the files.