Just In:Journalist suing Melania Trump says he’ll ask first lady and Donald about Epstein under oath

The journalist suing First Lady Melania Trump is reportedly planning to ask her and her husband about their connection to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein under oath.

Michael Wolff, who has written a series of books about the Trump administration, filed a bombshell suit against the First Lady, accusing her of waging a ‘calculated campaign to destroy’ his reputation.

It comes after Melania threatened to sue the author over claims he made that she allegedly had ties to Epstein, according to documents obtained by the Daily Mail.

He had claimed in a podcast that ‘Melania could be the missing link in President Trump’s ties’ to Epstein and that President Trump ‘first slept with Melania’ on Epstein’s infamous ‘Lolita Express.’

As part of his lawsuit, Wolff is now asking the court for permission to question Melania and Donald Trump about their dealings with Epstein, the Daily Beast reports.

Wolff also told TMZ he has never been able to ask a question under oath in all of his years as a reporter, and is looking forward to ‘asking Melania and Donald Trump about the matters at issue in this case, including their relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.’

The reporter – who has said he ‘is contemplating writing a book’ about Epstein using hours of interviews he conducted with the disgraced financier – is suing the First Lady for damages under New York’s anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) laws which silence critics of powerful people.

His attorneys argue that the First Lady sent him what he calls a ‘threat letter’ on October 15 saying if he didn’t stop making what Trump’s attorneys called defaming statements in six days, she would sue him for $1billion.

She had accused Wolff of making ‘false, defamatory and lewd statements’ in a letter from her attorney Alejandro Brito, and said the journalist made ‘extremely salacious’ allegations that reached tens of millions of people worldwide.

The claims Wolff made about Melania’s alleged connection with Epstein were even repeated by Hunter Biden in an interview, and Melania threatened to sue him as well, with her attorney Alejandro Brito calling Wolff ‘a serial fabulist.’

The First Lady’s lawyer demanded that Biden ‘immediately retract the false, defamatory, disparaging and inflammatory statements made about Mrs. Trump.’

In his lawsuit, filed in the Supreme Court of New York County on Tuesday, Wolff argued that the Trumps ‘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.’

He added that the Trumps try to use legal threats ‘designed to create a climate of fear in the nation so that people cannot freely or confidently exercise their First Amendment rights.

‘The threats are also intended to shut down legitimate inquiry into the Epstein matter, which the Trumps and their collaborators have at every turn sought to impede and suppress,’ the lawsuit claims.

It then goes onto allege that Melania’s threat of legal action is intended to ‘impede and chill future reporting and writing that Mr. Wolff has committed to doing regarding Epstein, Mr. Trump and Mrs. Trump.

‘In many respects, that is the primary purpose of these claims,’ the suit says.

Wolff told the Daily Beast that bringing the case against Melania was a ‘difficult decision,’ as he said he ‘did not want to be in a lawsuit, but I also am a journalist and have been one for 40 years.

‘I’ve written four books about Donald Trump and have never been sued,’ he continued, arguing that the First Lady’s threatened legal action is designed to ‘intimidate and silence me, as Donald Trump has done to so many news organizations and reporters.’

Fortunately, New York has an Anti-SLAPP law. This law protects people sued for making statements involving matters of public concern.

‘In order to avail myself of this protection, I choose to begin an action against her, rather than have her threats hanging over my head indefinitely,’ Wolff explained.

The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House for comment about Wolff’s claims.

In a statement earlier on Wednesday, Melania’s spokesperson told the Daily Mail: ‘First Lady 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.’

The Daily Beast had published Wolff’s claims about Melania’s alleged connection with Epstein in a story in July – but later retracted the article after the First Lady complained.

In a statement at the time, editors for the online publication said they found the story did ‘not meet our standards and has therefore been removed from our platforms.

‘In response to a letter from the First Lady’s attorneys, The Daily Beast has also removed a portion of an episode of The Daily Beast Podcast titled “Trump’s Epstein Scandal Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop” referencing the First Lady,’ the statement continued.

It noted that Melania ‘points to her best-selling book “Melania” as the definitive account of her life story.

We apologize to the First Lady and our readers,’ the editors said.

The First Lady had written in her memoir that she first met Trump at New York’s Kit Kat Klub during 1998 Fashion Week after being ‘drawn to his magnetic energy.’

The two got engaged six years later and were married in 2005.