Author Michael Wolff is not going down without a fight in his legal feud with Melania Trump.
The longtime Donald Trump biographer is unfazed by a federal judge’s decision to toss his so-called anti-SLAPP suit against the first lady, vowing in a Saturday taping of Inside Trump’s Head podcast to continue challenging Melania in the courts.
“We knew from the beginning when we drew a Trump judge in federal court, in the Southern District in New York, that that was problematic,” Wolff told co-host Joanna Coles. “I think our attitude was, ‘OK, you know, that’s the hand we drew.’”
He continued, “We never had any illusions that this was going to proceed in a straight line, this case. But make no mistake, we are going forward with this.”
U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, a Trump appointee, issued a scathing 45-page ruling that threw out a lawsuit Wolff filed against Melania in October—a suit he filed after the first lady threatened to sue him over comments he made about her ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
States like New York have introduced anti-SLAPP laws to protect free expression from “strategic lawsuits against public participation,” a legal action typically taken by the rich and powerful to stifle free speech.
The judge took a swipe at both parties in her Friday ruling, criticizing what she described as “an inappropriate level of tactical gamesmanship.”
“In this case, a chronicler of the First Family sues the First Lady because she threatened to sue him for defamation. While Plaintiff and the First Lady have a real dispute, they must litigate it according to the same procedures as everyone else,” she wrote.
“There are many features of this case that make it complicated: the prominence of the personalities involved, the scandalizing content of the underlying statements, and, frankly, an inappropriate level of tactical gamesmanship,” Vyskocil added. “But the outcome is simple. The Court will not be conscripted to oversee an abusively presented spat and so declines to reach the merits here.”
Wolff said the ruling does not end his legal battle. Rather, it gives him multiple avenues to continue his suit against the first lady.
“The question is, what does that mean? And that will be the next chapter in this? Are we back in state court? Are we appealing in federal court? I mean, I assume we’ll probably do both things,” he said. “But I think, fundamentally, it’s the question now of, can we get before a judge who is not a Trump judge?”
Melania threatened to sue Wolff after he spoke about the first family’s ties to Epstein, including a claim that Melania met the future president through Epstein’s social circle.
Wolff argued that he had never accused the first lady of involvement in Epstein’s crimes and that the remarks were constitutionally protected opinions.
Wolff sued Melania after her lawyer, Alejandro Brito, sent him a letter warning that the first lady would be “left with no alternative” but to sue him if he refused to retract statements her legal team claimed caused “overwhelming reputational and financial harm.”
Brito and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast on Saturday.
Earlier in the day, the first lady took a victory lap on X over Vyskocil’s ruling.
“First Lady Melania Trump is 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,” her office said in a statement.
