Melania Trump the wife of U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is suing British tabloid Daily Mail and a US blogger for $150m, after they published stories claiming that she worked as an escort in the 1990s.
Trump’s lawyers filed suit against Mail Media, Inc., the parent company of the Daily Mail and blogger Webster Tarpley of the Tarpley.net, seeking to collect $75,000 each for making “tremendously damaging” statements.
“These defendants made several statements about Mrs Trump that are 100% false and tremendously damaging to her personal and professional reputation,” said lawyer Charles Harder in a statement.
“Defendants’ actions are so egregious, malicious and harmful to Mrs Trump that her damages are estimated at $150m,” Harder said.
The complaint was filed at the Circuit Court for Montgomery County in the US state of Maryland on September 01.
Daily Mail issued a retraction of the story it published on August 20 with a headline that read: “Naked photoshoots, and troubling questions about visas that won’t go away: The VERY racy past of Donald Trump’s Slovenian wife.”
In its retraction the Daily Mail said that it had no intention of suggesting that Melania was an escort and was instead trying make a point that such untrue allegations could affect the U.S. presidential election.
