Michael Wolff says Melania Trump is launching a new retaliatory legal move against him over his comments about her and Jeffrey Epstein—even though a federal judge has already reprimanded the first lady over the tactic.
A Trump-appointed federal judge threw out Wolff’s lawsuit against Melania in May, but the first lady is now asking the court to sanction the longtime Donald Trump biographer over “factual misrepresentations, frivolous legal arguments and bad-faith conduct.”
Wolff, 72, had sued Melania, 56, in a so-called anti-SLAPP suit designed to protect freedom of the press, after she threatened to sue him for $1 billion over his remarks about the Trump family’s ties to Epstein, including a claim that Melania may have met Trump through the pedophile’s social circle.
“Essentially, they are moving to sanction my lawyers for doing nothing more than bringing the lawsuit against Melania Trump,” Wolff said on the Inside Trump’s Head podcast. “So this is preposterous on its face.”
He continued that the move is “another... kind of thing that comes with all of Trump-style... litigation, which is you do everything, no matter how... sordid and not respectable... and bound to be thrown out of court, you do this stuff to cost your opponents more money and to cause delay.”
However, Melania’s effort to sanction Wolff has stumbled out of the gate: The same judge who threw out the author’s lawsuit rebuked the first lady’s revenge move on Wednesday.
“I wonder if it’s in the interest of the parties to continue litigating in this court,” District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil told Melania’s lawyers, according to Courthouse News Service.
Vyskocil, a longtime Federalist Society member appointed in New York’s Southern District by Trump in his first term, said the motion for a Section 11 sanction faces a high bar, adding that Melania must demonstrate “clear evidence” that Wolff’s lawsuit was brought baselessly and in bad faith.
“I think sometimes people get so caught up in the fervor of the moment that they don’t really stop and think about the cost-benefit analysis of motions that are contemplated and the burden you put a court to,” she was quoted saying.
Melania’s lawyers, who said they are seeking sanctions “sufficient to deter repetition and to compensate Mrs. Trump for the costs imposed by their misconduct,” indicated that they plan to move forward with the motion.
Wolff told co-host Joanna Coles that he had known since January that Melania’s lawyers would file a motion to sanction him due to a Signalgate-like mistake by the president’s personal lawyer.
“On January 26th of this year, I got a text... from the president’s personal lawyer, a man by the name of Boris Epshteyn, and the text said, ‘Hey team, what’s our timing on the Section 11 filing?’” Wolff said.
Coles quipped, “And I’m assuming that you weren’t part of the team.”
“I was not part of the team,” the author said. “I am in Boris Epshteyn’s address book because he’s... a frequent off-the-record chatterer... and as can happen, he was thinking about me and writing a text about me, but it wasn’t supposed to go to me.”
He added that “the more important thing” is that Epshteyn’s mistake revealed that his lawsuit against Melania “was being coordinated at the highest levels of Trump law.”
Representatives for Melania and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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