{"id":4193,"date":"2026-08-31T13:41:03","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T13:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/?p=4193"},"modified":"2026-08-31T13:41:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T13:41:03","slug":"judge-dismisses-michael-wolff-lawsuit-against-melania-trump-sending-dispute-back-to-state-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/?p=4193","title":{"rendered":"Judge Dismisses Michael Wolff Lawsuit Against Melania Trump, Sending Dispute Back to State Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014<\/strong>\u00a0A federal judge has dismissed journalist and author Michael Wolff\u2019s lawsuit against First Lady Melania Trump, ruling that the dispute should be handled in state court rather than through the federal judiciary.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil described Wolff\u2019s attempt to litigate the matter in federal court as \u201ccontorted\u201d and criticized what she characterized as an inappropriate level of tactical maneuvering. Although the judge acknowledged that the parties have a genuine legal dispute, she said the federal court should not be used to manage what she viewed as an improperly presented conflict.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s an inappropriate level of tactical gamesmanship,\u201d Vyskocil said during the proceedings, according to reports.<\/p>\n

The judge also said she would not be \u201cdrafted to oversee an abusively presented spat,\u201d while emphasizing that her decision did not necessarily resolve the underlying disagreement between Wolff and the first lady.<\/p>\n

The dispute began after an attorney for Melania Trump sent Wolff a legal demand last year calling on him to remove statements he had made concerning the first lady. The letter reportedly warned that Melania Trump would have \u201cno alternative\u201d but to pursue legal action if the statements were not withdrawn.<\/p>\n

Wolff subsequently filed a lawsuit in state court in October. Melania Trump\u2019s attorney, Alejandro Brito, later moved the case to federal court. Vyskocil ruled that federal jurisdiction existed but declined to exercise it, effectively sending the matter back to be litigated through the state judicial system.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Melania Trump defended the first lady\u2019s position, saying she remains prepared to challenge what her legal team considers malicious and defamatory statements.<\/p>\n

The dispute centers in part on comments Wolff has made about Melania Trump and her relationship with President Donald Trump. Wolff\u2019s lawsuit argues that some of his statements were protected opinion or had been taken out of context.<\/p>\n

Among the statements cited in the litigation was Wolff\u2019s characterization of the Trump marriage as a \u201csham marriage, trophy marriage.\u201d His legal filings reportedly argued that the statement constituted an opinion rather than a factual allegation.<\/p>\n

Wolff also maintained that he had never accused Melania Trump of participating in criminal activity connected to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The first lady has repeatedly denied any association with Epstein and has publicly objected to what she described as false claims linking her to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today,\u201d Melania Trump said during an April press conference.<\/p>\n

She accused those making the allegations of attempting to damage her reputation and rejected what she described as efforts to defame her.<\/p>\n

The controversy also drew attention after The Daily Beast retracted an article published last summer that had suggested Melania Trump was \u201cvery involved\u201d in the Epstein scandal. The article was based on an interview with Wolff and was withdrawn after the publication received a letter from Brito.<\/p>\n

Wolff later clarified that his comments referred to Melania Trump being involved \u201cbehind the scenes\u201d in dealing with matters at the White House, while he said he was not alleging criminal involvement.<\/p>\n

The broader Epstein controversy has also generated political responses. Republican Rep. Nancy Mace praised Melania Trump for speaking publicly about Epstein victims and pointed to her support for legislation addressing the distribution of fabricated intimate images.<\/p>\n

Democratic lawmakers have likewise called for greater congressional scrutiny. Rep. Robert Garcia said lawmakers supported Melania Trump\u2019s call for a public hearing and urged congressional leaders to schedule one.<\/p>\n

In her remarks, Melania Trump called on Congress to take action and urged lawmakers to give victims an opportunity to testify under oath.<\/p>\n

For now, however, the legal dispute with Wolff remains unresolved on its underlying merits. Judge Vyskocil\u2019s ruling determines where the case should be litigated, not whether either side ultimately prevails.<\/p>\n

The dismissal represents a procedural setback for Wolff in federal court, while leaving the broader dispute\u2014and the competing claims over speech, reputation and defamation\u2014to be addressed through the appropriate state-court proceedings.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014\u00a0A federal judge has dismissed journalist and author Michael Wolff\u2019s lawsuit against First Lady Melania Trump, ruling that the dispute should be handled in state court rather than … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4195,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4193\/revisions\/4195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}