Melania Trump‘s platform as First Lady is combating online bullying… against herself and her family. She’s currently embroiled in two multi-million dollar libel lawsuits against people who she feels said mean and untrue things about her on the internet.
Related: The First Lady’s cause: Herself! (No, seriously. It really is.)
One of the outlets the First Lady is suing is the Daily Mail over a story it published last year suggesting she had once worked as an “escort.” The story covered Melania’s journey from Europe to New York in the mid-1990s and claimed that she became connected with a wealthy New York entrepreneur shortly after arriving in the Big Apple, who allegedly operated an escort agency for wealthy clients, which she may or may not have worked for.
Immediately upon the story’s publication, Melania’s team put out a statement saying the claims were totally “false” and insisting she only “did legitimate and legal modeling work for legitimate business entities and did not work for any ‘gentleman’s club’ or ‘escort’ agencies.” Then she filed a libel lawsuit against the publication.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Now, here’s where it gets weird.
Related: Melania Trump granted permission to sue blogger for $150 million for calling her an escort
Melania filed the lawsuit in Maryland. Her lawyers argued that the company’s advertisements target users in the state, and so filing the suit was proper. In response, the website’s parent company, Mail Media, filed a motion to have the case dismissed on the grounds that it wasn’t filed in the proper jurisdiction. (Both the Daily Mail and Mail Media are based in the U.K.)
Now, Maryland Circuit Court Judge Sharon Burrell has ruled in favor of the Daily Mail.
“[T]here is nothing about the parties that connects the case against MMI to Maryland–MMI does not have an office in Maryland, Plaintiff does not live in Maryland, and the witnesses are not located in Maryland,” Burrell wrote in her ruling. “It would be unreasonable as a matter of constitutional due process for this Court to exert jurisdiction over MMI or MailOnline in the State of Maryland.”
Related: On second thought, Melania Trump might not move to Washington, D.C. after all
Melania’s other libel lawsuit, the one demanding $150 million from blogger Webster Griffin Tarpley, however, will proceed in the Maryland Circuit Court, since Tarpley lives in Maryland.
The First Lady’s attorney Charles Harder has not yet commented on the ruling, though we’re sure she won’t be going to give up that easily. After all, a source close to Melania told US Weekly this week that she is “very much embracing the role and responsibilities of First Lady,” of which online bullying is her top priority.
calpoidog
This is a non-story. Nothing about the procedural aspects of her libel case are “weird” – it’s just everyday stuff. Why is it “weird”?
RIGay
Other than jurisdictional consideration, I see nothing weird about this, either. It’s just click-bait “Ooooo! Sensationalized story! A judge said “wrong country””…
There are far more diabolical things to fret over under King Twittlers rule.
RIGay
And no one has posted that the anagram of Donald Trump is “Lord Dampnut”!
whatevz
the dumb gold-digging foreign escort can’t seem to catch a break! SAD!
Mo Bro
I see you still have your dad’s computer, still trolling the sites he frequents.
He’s gonna be maaaaaaad.
whatevz
@Mo Bro – if you like to defend forced sexual assault criminals and their most prized foreign escort, racists, liars, greedy fake christians and their toothless inbred homeschooled supporters, you can, because freedom!
Mo Bro
@whatevz:
Your unbridled hatred of people who’ve done nothing to you (especially a 10-year-old kid, for chrissakes) reveals a very real lack of maturity and reason on your part about how you cannot accept anything or anyone you don’t agree with.
ps – Say hi to your dad for me.
whatevz
says a self-loathing Mo, lol!
not a clone
I wonder if they will get to sopena her husband as well as all her business and personal acquaintences and all the photographers she worked with.. This is going to be a mess
gscott
“They still call me Admiral though I gave up the seas long ago”
NateOcean
Excellent cloak. But you’re still getting sued.
UncleFloppy
I think that Melania needs to be very careful with this lawsuit because I know from two different very reliable sources that Melania most certainly DID work as prostitute in NYC in the 90’s. In fact, she was not a “high-priced call girl”; she was a street-walker who worked in the area around Times Square.
I remember that one of those guys I knew who had taken advantage of her “services” laughed his ass off when he found out that Trump was marrying her and he wondered out loud if Trump was aware of her past “business dealings”.
Creamsicle
Libel and Slander suits are notoriouly hard to prosecute. This will probably settle out of court, but there is a danger that it might not. Since it’s possible that some people might be willing to send money or legal support to the MMI team due to political opposition to the Trumps. If it drags on or even finds in favor of MMI it could become a political bombshell.
graphicjack
She ought to learn from the Oscar Wilde case when he tried to sue Lord Queensbury for libel…. the problem is, it’s not libel if it’s true. Id she had stayed quiet the story would have blown over… now she’s bringing a lot of scrutiny to the claims and the Daily Mail may already have proof of her past. I could care less one way or the other and in a way I hope it’s true so Trump would divorce her and she’d get away from that madman… she looks absolutely miserable.
Jack Meoff
Why does she suddenly look older than her online age of 46? Lately every picture of her makes her look older than her years. Perhaps her current situation is taking it’s toll on her looks.
Mo Bro
You meant “its” toll, not “it’s” toll. “It’s” is a contraction of “it is,” not the possessive “its” that you intended.
If I’ve learned nothing else from this site, it’s that haters are gonna hate, and lefties are gonna spell like first-graders . . . and you’re a textbook example of both.
Jack Meoff
So this is what you have resorted to Mobro. First you tried to insult me by referring to me by a girls name on a previous post and now you are picking on a simple error in grammar and once again trying to trivialise me by referring to me as a first-grader. These attacks tell us more about you than they do about me. It makes you sound like a sad old man sitting alone at home with nothing better to do than troll people who have posted opinions different than your own. So sad :o(
BigWill
She sounds like she’s going to make big trouble for Moose and Squirrel.
UncleFloppy
You have to be a child of the ’60s to get THAT reference.