Melania Trump wins dismissal of Michael Wolff’s anti-SLAPP suit

MANHATTAN (CN) — Trump biographer Michael Wolff has lost his anti-SLAPP lawsuit against First Lady Melania Trump after a federal judge ruled the claim was “preemptive.”

Wolff, a journalist who has written four books about President Donald Trump since he first took office, filed the lawsuit in October 2025 in hopes of staving off a billion-dollar defamation threat from Melania Trump — who demanded an apology for Wolff’s comments on the administration’s handling of the Epstein files.

But on Friday, U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil ruled that Wolff was seeking special treatment by seeking to litigate out of order.

“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, a Donald Trump appointee, wrote in a 45-page ruling.

Wolff claimed in his lawsuit that Melania Trump was looking to retaliate against him for saying that she was integrated in the expansive social circle of disgraced financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. That’s not defamatory, he argued, nor were his claims that the first lady was “actively managing” the Trump administration’s scrutinized handling of the Epstein files.

Vyskocil acknowledged that Wolff and Melania Trump have a “real dispute,” but that they “must litigate it according to the same procedures as everyone else.”

In her scathing ruling, the judge accused Wolff of “textbook bad-faith forum shopping” by filing his anti-SLAPP claim in New York before Melania Trump even filed her defamation suit in Florida — a state where federal jurisdictions have historically been kinder to the whims of the Trump family.

In his bid to preemptively get the court to clear his statements as not defamatory, Wolff won “the race to the courthouse,” Vyskocil ruled sarcastically. But she refused to engage on the nature of his comments at all, lambasting him for an “inappropriate level of tactical gamesmanship.”

“The outcome is simple,” Vyskocil wrote. “The court will not be conscripted to oversee an abusively presented spat and so declines to reach the merits here.”

Wolff initially filed his lawsuit in state court in New York after receiving a letter from Melania Trump’s lawyer threatening him with defamation. The first lady had the claim moved to federal court, where Vyskocil ultimately declined to exercise jurisdiction.

Neither Wolff’s lawyer nor the White House immediately responded to requests for comment on Friday.

Wolff’s complaint was based on the state’s anti-SLAPP law, short for strategic lawsuits against public participation, which is designed to block legal action intended to chill speech. In the lawsuit, he accused the Trump family of creating “a climate of fear in the nation so that people cannot freely or confidently exercise their First Amendment rights.”

“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 their speech, to intimidate their critics generally, and to extract unjustified payments and North Korean-style confessions and apologies,” Wolff claimed.

Wolff interviewed Epstein extensively before his 2019 suicide in a New York City prison. He noted in his civil complaint that he intended to use subpoena power to probe the Trumps about their ties to the well-connected financier.

Among the statements he sought to defend in the lawsuit was a claim that Donald Trump liked to have sex with his friends’ wives, and that he first slept with Melania Trump on Epstein’s private jet. Wolff also defended his claim that their marriage was a “sham marriage, trophy marriage.”

He also stated that Melania “plays no small part” in “the Epstein story.” Though he also noted in the suit that he never said Melania Trump was involved in Epstein’s crimes.

The Epstein scandal has been a thorn in the side of Donald Trump since he reclaimed the White House at the end of 2024, renewing nationwide interest in his reported close friendship with the infamous sex offender.

It evidently struck the first lady as well. In April, Melania Trump made an unprompted recorded statement distancing herself from Epstein’s sex trafficking, stating that “the lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today.”

“I have never been friends with Epstein,” Melania Trump claimed. “Donald and I were invited to the same parties as Epstein from time to time, since overlapping in social circles is common in New York City and Palm Beach.”

She added she has never been “legally accused or convicted of a crime in connection with Epstein’s sex trafficking, abuse of minors and other repulsive behavior.”

Follow @Uebey Follow @uebey.bsky.social