The First Lady Melania Trump took a desperate step to protect herself in the case brought against her by Michael Wolff, the author revealed.
Wolff revealed on the Inside Trump’s Head podcast that the presidential spouse has hired a new, high-powered legal team to defend her from his groundbreaking lawsuit—which may allow the author to question Melania about her husband’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Donald and Melania Trump (then Melania Knauss) with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago in 2000. / Davidoff Studios Photography / Getty Images
Wolff is suing the first lady under special New York state laws to protect journalists and free speech after she threatened to sue him for $1 billion. He raised an extraordinary total of more than $775,000 to fund his lawsuit, which he filed in court in New York City in October. The suit, known as a SLAPP action—which stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation—gives Wolff subpoena power once Melania has been served with it.
But Wolff revealed how he struggled to serve the case on Trump. He said that one firm that serves cases refused to work with his lawyers and the second one could not serve him.
Now Trump has launched a new legal tactic, hiring a huge law firm and asking a federal judge to move the case up the federal court system—a move Wolff said was designed to cause new delays. To bring the federal case, she retained DLA Piper, the third largest law firm in the world, and, in particular, a partner in the firm who is a former clerk of the Supreme Court of Justice Neil Gorsuch.
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Michael Wolff has written four books about Trump and his administrations:
A new filing in New York State Supreme Court still lists Melania’s initial attorney—Alejandro Brito, of Coral Gables, Florida—as part of her legal team, but says DLA partner Josh Halpern is now “of counsel” for the case. Halpern joined Gorsuch before joining DLA Piper.
Wolff said the move suggested concerns in the Trump camp about the case.
“This is what Trump always does,” Wolff told co-host Joanna Coles. “Hire some new firm, ask questions later.”
And writing on his Substack, HOWL, Wolff said the move showed he had forced the first lady “out into the open.”
“The proximate cause of this move of law firms, and the attempt to move to federal court, may be that, after she appeared to check our service (you’re served!) at her logical points of contact—through her attorney in Coral Gables, and at her residence in Trump Tower—we filed a Motion for Alternative Service earlier this week in court, or to ask to the court a method acceptable to the court for serving it,” he wrote.
Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in February 2020. / Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Additional legal counsel may indicate that the 55-year-old first lady is particularly concerned about the subpoena power that will give Wolff.
“You can’t let that happen,” Wolff told Coles. “So she either—I mean, her options are to beat the clock on this, which they’re certainly going to try to do. [use] any delaying tactic.”
Coles noted that, like the Epstein files, which continue to reveal damning details about President Trump, Melania can’t talk to Wolff and his lawyers forever.
“Eventually, the clock runs out,” she said.
Melania Trump, Prince Andrew, Gwendolyn Beck and Jeffrey Epstein at a party at Mar-a-Lago on February 12, 2000. / Davidoff Studios Photography / Getty Images
Wolff, who alleges in his suit that the first lady is trying to stifle a “legitimate inquiry” into Epstein by threatening to sue him for $1 billion, suggested that one avenue for Trump to pursue would be a settlement—but he has strict terms for that hypothetical.
“I think at some point they may come and offer to resolve this,” she theorized. “And what solution do I get? I don’t know. I can, what if they say, [and] they won’t say this, but what if they said they would never again enter into pacts to sue any media organization for libel? Do I accept this?”
Donald and Melania Trump arrive for a New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago on December 31, 2025. / Joe Raedle/Getty Images
He continued, “Possibly, yes. But it has to be something as definitive as that.”
A spokesman for Trump’s legal team said in a statement. “Michael Wolff is a serial liar whose malicious, defamatory and false statements have forced the Daily Beast to fire back several times. By repeating these latest lies, the Daily Beast and its reporters are making it clear that they have not learned their lesson.”
The White House referred the Daily Beast to Trump’s legal team. Trump’s White House spokesman, Steven Cheung, repeatedly accused Wolff of being a “lying sack of s–t.”
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