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A federal judge in Manhattan has dismissed an unusual preemptive lawsuit brought by author and journalist Michael Wolff against First Lady Melania Trump, sharply rebuking the action as an improper legal maneuver.
U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil declined to entertain Wolff’s complaint, which sought a declaratory judgment barring the first lady from pursuing a threatened $1 billion defamation claim against him. Wolff had filed the action after the first lady’s legal team demanded he retract public remarks linking her to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
In a pointed ruling, Judge Vyskocil characterized Wolff’s preemptive filing as a “contorted” legal gambit that amounted to “an inappropriate level of tactical gamesmanship.” While acknowledging the parties share a genuine underlying dispute, Vyskocil made clear that the court would not serve as an arena for premature posturing.
“This is not how federal courts work,” Vyskocil wrote, adding that she refused to be “drafted to oversee an abusively presented spat” and dismissed the matter so it could proceed through traditional legal channels should a formal defamation action be filed.
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