Lawyers for Melania Trump are pursuing legal action against the Daily Mail for reporting “100% false” rumors that she worked as an escort in the 1990s as well as raising questions about her immigration status at the time.
While Donald Trump has a reputation for threatening and pursuing litigation, it is unusual for a major party nominee or their spouse to mount legal action against a publication only months before an election.
The Republican nominee’s wife had previously denied a story in Politico in which questions about her immigration status were first reported but had not previously addressed the other accusations.
The suit comes in the wake of Trump launching an offensive against many media outlets, banning some such as Politico and the Washington Post from covering his rallies as well as calling for stricter libel laws in the US. He also banned the Guardian from attending an event in Scotland after Trump took offence when reporter Ewen MacAskill questioned the Republican nominee about his allegedly “toxic” politics.
In a statement to the Guardian, Charles Harder, an attorney at the firm of Harder, Miller and Abrams which is representing Trump, said: “This law firm is litigation counsel for Melania Trump. Mrs Trump has placed several news organizations on notice of her legal claims against them, including Daily Mail among others, for making false and defamatory statements about her supposedly having been an ‘escort’ in the 1990s. All such statements are 100% false, highly damaging to her reputation, and personally hurtful. She understands that news media have certain leeway in a presidential campaign, but outright lying about her in this way exceeds all bounds of appropriate news reporting and human decency.”
