Melania Trump's $150M 'High-End Escort' Lawsuit Stands, Judge Rules

ROCKVILLE, MD — Claims that First Lady Melania Trump worked as a high-end paid escort before she married businessman, billionaire and now President Donald Trump will be argued over in a Maryland court. On Friday a Montgomery County judge ruled that Melania Trump's $150 million defamation lawsuit against a Clarksburg blogger will continue to trial, saying the blog posts implied she acted as a prostitute.

The lawsuit in September seeks $150 million in damages for the story, which portrayed the former model as having once worked as a high-end escort. Judge Sharon Burrell rejected the blogger's arguments that he had no malice and that Trump's lawsuit was designed to punish comment on a public issue.

"The court believes most people, when they hear the words 'high-end escort' that describes a prostitute. There could be no more defamatory statement than to call a woman a prostitute," Judge Burrell said, reports Politico.

Before marrying President-elect and businessman Donald Trump, then Melania Knauss worked in Europe and the United States as a model; she has denied the escort claims. The judge has yet to rule on whether her lawsuit against a British newspaper, the Daily Mail, for making the same claims, will be dismissed.

Reporters tweeting from the Rockville courtroom Friday said Melania Trump did not attend the proceedings. She was in the courtroom during a December hearing on the lawsuit.

Trump sued Clarksburg blogger Webster Tarpley along with the Daily Mail for defamation, The Washington Post says. Both publications later retracted their stories. Tarpley has said that he did not libel Melania Trump and was only passing on “unfounded rumors and innuendo” that had appeared online.

“Melania Trump’s lawsuit against me is without merit,” Tarpley says on his website. “Mrs. Trump is a public figure actively engaged in the Trump for president campaign. We are confident that Mrs. Trump will not be able to meet her high burden of proving the statements published about her on my website were defamatory in any way. Her lawsuit is a blatant attempt to intimidate not only me, but journalists of all stripes into remaining silent with regard to public figures. This lawsuit is a direct affront to First Amendment principles and free speech in our democratic society.”

Her attorney, Charles Harder, said in a statement when the lawsuits were filed: “These defendants made several statements about Mrs. Trump that are 100 percent 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.”

Harder, a Beverly Hills, California-based lawyer, triumphed in court in August in a massive lawsuit on behalf of wrestling star Hulk Hogan. The win sent Gawker Media into bankruptcy; the lawsuit was financed by billionaire Peter Thiel, a Trump supporter and foe of Gawker since it outed him as gay, Forbes says.

First ladies typically take up a social cause to champion while they are in the White House; former First Lady Michelle Obama advocated for better eating habits to combat childhood obesity. Melania Trump has said that her focus when her husband, a regular Twitter user, takes office will be to fight bullying on social media and to advocate for women.

In a November speech, she called for an end to online bullying of children and teenagers, saying, "Our culture has gotten too mean and too rough especially to children and to teenagers. We have to find a better way to talk to each other, to disagree with each other, to respect each other."

After last weekend's inauguration festivities, Trump returned to New York with son Barron, who will finish his school year there.

Image via Mark Nozell, Flickr, used under Creative Commons