Before getting into the latest Trump lawsuit β this one by Melania Trump for defamation, filed in my local courthouse β I want to get one thing out of the way. I think that the families of politicians are offβlimits for commentary and ridicule except in limited circumstances. One of those circumstances is an active engagement in politics. Children are likewise off-limits, unless engaged in politics. Thus, Eric Trump, Donald, Jr. This is the reason that Rush Limbaugh and John McCain were both mercilessly skewered for picking on the child of a president.
It is vulgar and completely beyond all sense of decency. While they had the constitutional right to conduct themselves that way, others had the right to flay them for having done it. But yesterday Melania lost that protection with her claims in a defamation case. The nuts and bolts of the claim is that some blogger claimed she was an escort while also being a model, and she says that was false and defamatory.
She sued the blogger and a website, Mail Online. She, and the family, were ripped by the New York Times and many others yesterday in an editorial:. There is no benign way to look at that claim.
Trump evidently believes her new title affords her a chance to rake in millions of dollars. A general claim of losses will suffice. The details will come later in a document called a bill of particulars, and even there, such hyperbolic language is not needed. If the objective was to garner press with the suit, well they succeeded. Beyond, perhaps, their wildest nightmares. Yup, you read that right.
It is specifically outlawed , and is sanctionable. And yes, defamation is a type of personal injury suit. The one pulling the strings is Charles Harder from Beverly Hills, who has experience in high-profile defamation cases. And he should have known better than to impugn his own client. According to his bio, these are his practice areas:. And here, the rules of procedure were clear: It was unnecessary and damaging to have Melania confess her true motives of using the White House for profit, and unnecessary to potentially subject her to sanctions for an impermissible ad damnum clause.
