Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has a reputation of leveraging legal force against anyone who speaks detrimentally of himself or his family.
The Daily Mail posted an article about Melania Trump’s racy photoshoots, visa issues, and posited her scantily clad photo spreads might have a bearing on the upcoming November election.
In response, Melania Trump filed a hefty $150 million defamation suit against The Daily Mail and threatened suit against Maryland-based blog, Tarply for allegedly suggesting she was once employed by an escort service.
From the LA Times:
Melania Trump is suing the Daily Mail and Maryland-based blog Tarpley for $150 million, claiming defamation related to reports that she once worked for an escort service.Trump, represented by Hulk Hogan’s former lawyer Charles Harder, threatened last week to sue several news organizations over the reports. The first to publish the allegation was Slovenian outlet Suzy magazine, which the Daily Mail cited.Harder’s statement reads: “These defendants made several statements about Mrs. Trump that are 100% false and tremendously damaging to her personal and professional reputation.”Tarpley retracted its report last week after being threatened with the lawsuit. After Trump filed her lawsuit on Thursday, The Daily Mail retracted their original report stating, “The Daily Mail newspaper article stated that there was no support for the allegations … The point of the article was that these allegations could impact the U.S. presidential election even if they are untrue.”
Thursday evening, The Daily Mail removed and retracted the article. Further, they apologized for any misinterpretation that led readers to believe Mrs. Trump was, “as stating or suggesting that Mrs. Trump worked as an ‘escort’ or in the ‘sex business,’ that she had a ‘composite or presentation card for the sex business,’ or that either of the modeling agencies referenced in the article were engaged in these businesses.”
On August 20, 2016, an article was published in the Daily Mail newspaper titled ‘Racy photos, and troubling questions about his wife’s past that could derail Trump.’The article discussed whether allegations being made about Melania Trump could negatively affect her husband Donald Trump’s presidential bid. Among other things, the article noted that allegations have been made in a book available on Amazon about a modeling agency where Mrs. Trump worked in Milan being ‘something like a gentleman’s club,’ and an article published by Suzy, a Slovenian magazine, alleged that Mrs. Trump’s modeling agency in New York, run by Paolo Zampolli, ‘operated as an escort agency for wealthy clients.’The article, which was also published online by the Mailonline/DailyMail.com website under the headline ‘Naked photoshoots, and troubling questions about visas that won’t go away: The VERY racy past of Donald Trump’s Slovenian wife’ did not intend to state or suggest that these allegations are true, nor did it intend to state or suggest that Mrs. Trump ever worked as an ‘escort’ or in the ‘sex business.’To the contrary, The Daily Mail newspaper article stated that there was no support for the allegations, and it provided adamant denials from Mrs. Trump’s spokesperson and from Mr. Zampolli.The point of the article was that these allegations could impact the U.S. presidential election even if they are untrue.Mrs. Trump’s counsel in the U.S. and the U.K., have stated unequivocally that the allegations about the modeling agencies are false.To the extent that anything in the Daily Mail’s article was interpreted as stating or suggesting that Mrs. Trump worked as an ‘escort’ or in the ‘sex business,’ that she had a ‘composite or presentation card for the sex business,’ or that either of the modeling agencies referenced in the article were engaged in these businesses, it is hereby retracted, and the Daily Mail newspaper regrets any such misinterpretation.The Daily Mail newspaper and MailOnline/DailyMail.com have entirely separate editors and journalistic teams.In so far as MailOnline/DailyMail.com published the same article it wholeheartedly also retracts the above and also regrets any such misinterpretation.
The Trump’s defamation claims might be a bit viewed a bit more credibly if not for Trump’s own history of insinuating oddities. Ted Cruz blamed Donald Trump for the National Enquirer story which alleged he had numerous affairs. “For Donald J. Trump to enlist his friends at the National Enquirer and his political henchmen to do his bidding shows you that there is no low Donald won’t go,” Cruz wrote. Trump insinuated Sen. Cruz’s father was involved in the assassination of President Kennedy, and threatened to “spill the beans,” on Sen. Cruz’s wife, Heidi.
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