Author Michael Wolff has filed a lawsuit against First Lady Melania Trump, escalating a legal battle that began when she threatened him with a $1 billion lawsuit over his statements connecting her to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The suit, filed in New York Supreme Court, Manhattan, accuses the first lady of attempting to silence free speech and suppress legitimate journalism.
The legal action came on Oct 22, 2025, after Melania Trump’s attorney, Alejandro Brito, demanded Wolff retract statements made during a July 2025 podcast episode. The letter demanded a retraction, public apology, and monetary payment for harm caused. Wolff, known for his bestselling book “Fire and Fury,” responded by invoking anti-SLAPP laws designed to protect against lawsuits intended to intimidate or silence critics.
“Mrs. Trump’s claims are made for the sole purpose of harassing, intimidating, punishing or otherwise maliciously inhibiting Mr. Wolff’s free exercise of speech,” the lawsuit states.
The dispute centers on statements Wolff made to The Daily Beast and on the Inside Trump’s Head podcast about Melania Trump’s alleged involvement in Jeffrey Epstein’s social circle. Epstein allegedly died by suicide in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. The Daily Beast subsequently retracted an article based on the podcast and issued an apology, stating the content did not meet their standards.
Wolff’s lawsuit argues his statements were taken out of context and constitute protected speech. He claims to have accrued many hours of interviews with Epstein conducted over several years. The author says the threats are intended to shut down legitimate inquiry into the Epstein matter.
Melania Trump’s office responded with a statement saying she “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.”
In a recent episode of the Inside Trump’s Head podcast, Wolff detailed his struggles serving legal papers to the first lady. He told his co-host that it’s quite unclear how you serve a subpoena on someone who has one of the most elaborate security details in the world. Wolff said he first attempted to serve the subpoena through Melania Trump’s attorney on Oct 15, 2025, but was refused.
He then hired legal process servers to deliver papers to Trump Tower, but encountered multiple obstacles. According to Wolff, process servers refused to serve the first lady, with some saying they would throw the papers in the garbage. However, Trump Tower staff confirmed that Melania Trump resides at the building, not the White House.
The author stated he expected to serve Melania Trump by the end of the week after exhausting his options and notifying the court. Wolff’s primary goal is to depose both Donald Trump and Melania Trump under oath.
The lawsuit marks an unusual legal confrontation between a journalist and a sitting first lady. Wolff’s complaint describes the Trumps as having made a practice of threatening those who speak against them with costly legal actions to silence their speech and extract unjustified payments.
Melania Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing connected to Epstein. Donald Trump and Epstein were friends, though their relationship reportedly ended years before Epstein’s arrest. The Epstein case has remained a source of public interest and conspiracy theories.
Wolff’s legal team argues the statements about the Trumps represent fair commentary and protected opinion. The lawsuit suggests certain statements, such as calling the Trump marriage a “sham marriage, trophy marriage,” constitute justified opinion rather than defamation. The complaint emphasizes that Wolff never accused Melania Trump of involvement in Epstein’s crimes.
The lawsuit indicates Wolff intends to explore what happened during Donald Trump and Epstein’s years of pursuing models, including supermodels, runway models, catalog models, Eastern European models, and aspiring models. According to the filing, this subject “will be one of the zones of inquiry that this lawsuit will have to undertake.”
The case represents a test of press freedom and First Amendment protections against powerful figures who use litigation threats to control the narrative. Wolff, who has published multiple books about the Trump administration, maintains his reporting serves the public interest by examining connections to Epstein that remain subjects of national concern.
The deadline set by Brito passed without Wolff complying with the demands for retraction and payment. Instead, the author filed his preemptive lawsuit seeking unspecified damages and court protection for his journalism. The case could ultimately require both Donald Trump and Melania Trump to answer questions under oath about their social and business relationships with Jeffrey Epstein, potentially revealing details the couple has sought to keep private.