Melania Trump Puts Media on Notice About False Reports
Melania Trump is fighting back.
The wife of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has been a soft target for media outlets during her husband’s campaign, has started legal action against Britain’s Daily Mail and other outlets that she says published defamatory articles about her past, Politico reports.
Prior to her marriage, Melania Trump was a highly successful model. In recent weeks news media have probed her past and questioned her career before she met Trump, including when she started work in America and whether she was legally working in the country. She denied any allegations of impropriety.
— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) August 4, 2016
Last week the Daily Mail and a few other outlets published a story suggesting that Melania Trump worked as an escort.
The GOP nominee’s wife has signified she intends to fight back against such claims in the same hard-hitting style as her husband, engaging Charles Harder as her attorney. Harder was Hulk Hogan’s lawyer in the former wrestler’s successful lawsuit against Gawker.
Harder on Monday issued a statement on behalf of 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,” Harder said in an email.
“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,’ the statement said.
Prior to the Daily Mail article’s publication, British news organizations had been warned not to publish the allegations.
Melania Trump noted that some who published the escort story have retracted it.
The website Inquisitr, which had run the story, on Monday ran a retraction and an apology.
“A story published within the last week at the Inquisitr had attributed to unfounded rumors and innuendo regarding model Melania Trump, wife of Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump, and her life prior to her marriage,” the retraction said.
“While Inquisitr writers did not generate said rumors, which alleged Melania Trump previously earned money as an escort, the writer in question was not diligent in fact-checking or maintaining a healthy distance between innuendo and fact,” the retraction added, offering her an apology.
Bipartisan Report also issued a retraction and apology. (For more from the author of “Melania Trump Puts Media on Notice About False Reports” please click HERE)
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