Long Island writer Michael Wolff sues Melania Trump over planned Jeffrey Epstein book

Author and Amagansett resident Michael Wolff filed a lawsuit Tuesday against first lady Melania Trump stemming from her efforts to block the publication of his planned book detailing she and President Donald Trump's ties to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, comes after attorneys for the first lady last week threatened to sue Wolff — who has authored four books on Donald Trump — for more than $1 billion in damages if he did not retract "false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading and inflammatory statements" made about the couple, including on his podcast.

"To be perfectly honest, I'd like nothing better than to get Donald Trump and Melania Trump under oath in front of a court reporter and actually find out all of the details of their relationship with Epstein," Wolff said Tuesday in a social media post from his East Hampton home.

Nick Clemens, a spokesman for the first lady, said Wednesday that "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 filed the defamation claim under New York State's anti-SLAPP [strategic lawsuits against public participation] law, designed to dissuade critics from filing suits that are meant to chill free speech and censor content.

He is asking the court to declare that the statements contested by Melania Trump in her letter are not actionable libel and for a declaratory judgment entitling him to legal fees and damages.

Wolff's forthcoming book, tentatively titled "The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump (Redux)," is set to reportedly detail Melania Trump's behind the scenes role in the administration's management of the Epstein scandal.

"Mrs. Trump and her 'unitary executive' husband, along with their MAGA myrmidons have made a practice of threatening those who speak against them with costly SLAPP actions in order to silence free speech, to intimidate their critics generally, and to extract unjustified payments and North Korea style confessions and apologies," Wolff's suit states. 

Wolff has said that he interviewed Epstein extensively before his 2019 jailhouse suicide. The notorious financier, Wolff said, alleged in the interviews that the president and first lady first had sex on Epstein's private Boeing 727-100, which he coined the "Lolita Express."

Melania Trump is also challenging public comments Wolff made alleging that the Trumps have a "sham marriage" and that she is actively managing the White House's response to the Epstein controversy.