Bill Thompson
WMAL.com
ROCKVILLE — (WMAL) The First Lady has settled a lawsuit she filed against a local writer.
Melania Trump sued Gaithersburg blogger Webster Tarpley for defamation, after he wrote a story last August that claimed Mrs. Trump had once worked as a “high-end escort” in New York City.
This morning, lawyers for Melania Trump announced the case has been settled. Tarpley has issued an apology and full retraction of the story he wrote.
“I posted an article on August 2, 2016 about Melania Trump that was replete with false and defamatory statements about her. I had no legitimate factual basis to make these false statements and I fully retract them. I acknowledge that these false statements were very harmful and hurtful to Mrs. Trump and her family, and therefore I sincerely apologize to Mrs. Trump, her son, her husband and her parents for making these false statements,” Tarpley wrote.
No financial terms were disclosed, but her lawyers did acknowledge that Tarpley will be writing Mrs. Trump a substantial check.
The settlement was first reported by Bethesda Beat.
In a court hearing January 27th, Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Sharon Burrell dropped Trump’s suit against the American affiliate of the British tabloid the Daily Mail over jurisdictional issues. That case is still pending in New York.
But Burrell allowed the case against Tarpley to stand, saying “There’s no more defamatory statement than to call a woman a prostitute.”
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