Melania
Trump sues Daily Mail for $150m over 'lies' about her past
Trump
also files suit against Maryland blogger as UK newspaper issues
retraction over articles that contained allegations about Trump’s
modeling career
Ben Jacobs in
Washington
Thursday 1 September
2016 23.47 BST
Lawyers for Melania
Trump on Thursday filed suit for $150m damages against the Daily Mail
in Maryland state court. The wife of Republican presidential nominee
Donald Trump is also suing a blogger, Webster Tarpley, from the state
in question.
In a statement,
Trump’s lawyer, Charles Harder, said: “These defendants made
several statements about Mrs Trump that are 100% false and
tremendously damaging to her personal and professional reputation
[and] broadcast their lies to millions of people throughout the US
and the world – without any justification.
“Their many lies
include, among others, that Mrs Trump supposedly was an ‘escort’
in the 1990s before she met her husband. Defendants’ actions are so
egregious, malicious and harmful to Mrs Trump that her damages are
estimated at $150m.”
The suit was filed
in Montgomery County, in suburban Washington DC, in response to
articles published in August by the Daily Mail which reported rumors
that Trump worked as an escort in the 1990s.
Last month,
announcing that Trump was considering a suit, her lawyer called those
rumors “100% false”.
The Daily Mail
article also contained allegations that Trump came to New York a year
earlier than she has claimed, raising issues about her immigration
status. Trump denied a story in Politico in which questions about her
immigration status were first reported.
The lawsuit noted
that while the article in question had been removed from the Daily
Mail’s website, the newspaper had yet to apologize or formally
retract. The Mail included a retraction of the story in its Friday UK
print edition.
“We did not intend
to state or suggest that these allegations are true,” the newspaper
said, “nor did we intend to state or suggest that Mrs Trump ever
worked as an ‘escort’ or in the ‘sex business’.” It added
that its article had included denials from a Trump spokesperson and
the owner of the modelling agency in question, and said it regretted
“any such misinterpretation”.
The retraction was
also posted online. “The Daily Mail newspaper and
MailOnline/DailyMail.com have entirely separate editors and
journalistic teams,” it added. “In so far as
MailOnline/DailyMail.com published the same article it wholeheartedly
also retracts the above and also regrets any such misinterpretation.”
Asked if the
retraction would affect the suit, Harder replied: “It does not.”
Tarpley’s
blogpost, which has been retracted, claimed, per the suit, that “it
is widely known Melania was not a working model but rather a high-end
escort” and that she had a “mental breakdown” after a
plagiarism controversy over her speech to the Republican national
convention in Cleveland in July.
Harder is best known
for representing Hulk Hogan in the lawsuit that bankrupted Gawker
Media and forced its sale to Univision last month. That suit was
funded by the Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, a vocal Trump
supporter.
Steve Klepper, an
appellate lawyer for the Baltimore law firm Kramon & Graham, said
the inclusion of a blogger in the suit indicated legal maneuvering.
He told the
Guardian: “Anytime you have a filing that adds a minor in-state
defendant, it’s a flag that they were joined to prevent removal to
federal court. And as we know, Donald Trump has not been having been
the best luck in federal court recently.”
Klepper pointed to a
Maryland defamation statute that might provide a basis for Melania
Trump’s suit. It reads: “A single or married woman whose
character or reputation for chastity is defamed by any person may
maintain an action against that person.”
'Plastered by the
gringo': Trump meeting a public relations disaster for Peña Nieto
Read more
He added, however:
“Montgomery County has possibly the highest-percentage college
education jury pool in the whole country and I cannot see how the
jury pool would be good for [Melania Trump].”
News of the lawsuit
came 68 days before the election, on the day Donald Trump pledged to
promote “patriotism” in schools and a day after he gave a
hardline immigration policy speech, hours after striking conciliatory
notes on the topic in a meeting with Mexican president Enrique Peña
Nieto.
The Republican
nominee, who has consistently trailed Hillary Clinton in the polls,
has developed a combative relationship with the media, blacklisting a
number of news outlets and pledging to pass stricter libel laws if
elected.
A Trump campaign
spokesperson told the Guardian: “We do not have anything in
addition to the Harder statement.”
The Daily Mail
responded to a request for comment by pointing to its online and
print retractions.
.webp)
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário