Judge dismisses lawsuit brought by author Michael Wolff against Melania Trump

A US district judge dismissed an author’s lawsuit against Melania Trump that sought dismissal under anti-SLAPP statutes. The judge said the claim was preemptive and improperly framed, because it requested a declaration that the author would deserve to win if Trump sued him. The judge acknowledged a real dispute but ruled it must proceed through ordinary federal court procedures. The author filed after Trump’s lawyer demanded retraction of statements tied to alleged reputational and financial harm. The judge criticized the author’s tactics, including forum shopping and litigating out of order, and declined to reach the merits because the court would not oversee an abusively presented dispute.

"The judge said that Wolff's claim against Trump under anti-Slapp statutes, which are designed to allow defendants to quickly dismiss meritless, intimidating lawsuits, was preemptive and presented in a somewhat contorted posture. In a 45-page ruling, Vyskocil said the plaintiff asks for a declaration that, if the first lady sues him, he deserves to win. That is not how the federal courts work."

"Vyskocil agreed that Wolff and the first lady have a real dispute, but said they must litigate it according to the same procedures as everyone else. Wolff sued Melania Trump last October after her lawyer, Alejandro Brito, told him in a letter that she would be left with no alternative but to sue him if he didn't retract statements that the lawyer said had caused her overwhelming reputational and financial harm."

"Vyskocil ruled that Wolff was seeking special treatment by seeking to litigate out of order and accused him of textbook bad-faith forum shopping by filing his claim in New York before Trump had filed her defamation suit in Florida. In that legal effort to establish his statements as non-defamatory, Wolff had won the race to the courthouse, Vyskocil wrote, but said he had exhibited an inappropriate level of tactical gamesmanship."

"The outcome is simple, Vyskocil continued. The court will not be conscripted to oversee an abusively presented spat and so declines to reach the merits here. Wolff, who has written four books about Donald Trump, filed the lawsuit last year in response to a lawsuit brought by the first lady after she demanded and failed to receive an apology for Wolff's comments on the administration's handling of files related to the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein."

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