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MANHATTAN (CN) — Despite already beating an anti-SLAPP lawsuit from journalist and Trump biographer Michael Wolff, first lady Melania Trump is keeping the litigation going by pushing for sanctions against Wolff over what she calls his “frivolous” case.
But a federal judge on Wednesday suggested she should perhaps quit while she is ahead, noting to the first lady’s lawyers “the case is now closed.”
“I wonder if it’s in the interest of the parties to continue litigating in this court,” said U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil.
In May, Vyskocil, a Donald Trump appointee in the Southern District of New York, issued a scathing order that dismissed Wolff’s lawsuit against Melania Trump. The judge accused Wolff of engaging in an “inappropriate level of tactical gamesmanship” in filing the preemptive anti-SLAPP suit.
Wolff, who has written four books about President Donald Trump since he first took office, filed the claim in 2025 after receiving a letter from the first lady’s lawyers threatening a billion-dollar defamation claim. Wolff said this was retaliation for him publicly commenting that Melania Trump was friends with Jeffrey Epstein and was playing an active role in the administration’s handling of the Epstein files.
Vyskocil ultimately found Wolff lacked the standing to file an anti-SLAPP claim since Melania Trump had not then — and still has not — sued him for defamation. Wolff is appealing the ruling.
But the first lady’s lawyers wrote to the court in June that they intended to sanction Wolff for his “factual misrepresentations, frivolous legal arguments and bad-faith conduct.”
“Plaintiff’s misconduct — and that of his counsel — warrants sanctions,” they wrote. “The sanctions should be sufficient to deter repetition and to compensate Mrs. Trump for the costs imposed by their misconduct.”
The parties met in Vyskocil’s courtroom on Wednesday. While the judge sided strongly with Melania Trump in her order to dismiss the lawsuit, she wondered aloud whether the first lady would have the same success with a motion for sanctions.
Vyskocil said Melania Trump would have to prove there is “clear evidence” Wolff brought the lawsuit baselessly and in bad faith. By her own observation, the standard for succeeding with such a motion “places a very high burden on the moving party.”
And with Melania Trump already victorious, the judge pondered whether this would be the best use of resources for both the parties and the court.
“I think sometimes people get so caught up in the fervor of the moment that they don’t really stop and think about the cost-benefit analysis of motions that are contemplated and the burden you put a court to,” Vyskocil said.
However, the judge added she also “cannot stop a party from filing a motion that it believes in good faith is warranted, except in very rare circumstances that aren’t present in this case.”
Melania Trump’s lawyers indicated they intend to move forward with the motion for sanctions and will file it by July 20.
Wolff’s now-defunct complaint was based on New York’s anti-SLAPP statute, short for strategic lawsuits against public participation, which is designed to block legal action intended to chill free 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.”
He defended several of his public statements about the Trumps, including the 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 stood by his claim that Melania Trump “plays no small part” in “the Epstein story,” though he also noted in his lawsuit he never said Melania Trump was involved in any of Epstein’s crimes.
The Epstein issue has been a thorn in the side of the first family since Donald Trump reclaimed the White House at the end of 2024, renewing nationwide interest in his reportedly close relationship with the infamous sex offender.
Melania Trump has tried to distance herself from the scandal. In April, she released a recorded statement distancing herself from Epstein’s sex trafficking, stating that “the lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today.”
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