Two weeks ago, Michael Wolff received a letter threatening a billion-dollar lawsuit if he didn’t retract statements about Melania Trump’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein. Instead of backing down, Wolff did something remarkable: he sued the First Lady first.
“I certainly wasn’t gonna say that this was not true, recant it, apologize for it, no less pay them a billion dollars,” Wolff told me. His lawyers explained the Trump playbook: file lawsuits you know you won’t win for the express purpose of causing “so much brain damage that people relent. They say, okay, fine, I’ll just walk away from this.”
This wasn’t retreat—it was a calculated offensive that transformed Wolff from threatened journalist into subpoena-wielding prosecutor. Under New York’s anti-SLAPP laws, designed to protect free speech from intimidation lawsuits, Wolff now has the power to compel both Melania and Donald Trump to answer questions under oath about their relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex trafficker who died in federal custody under suspicious circumstances.
“To be perfectly honest, I’d like nothing better than to get Donald Trump and Melania Trump under oath and actually find out all of the details of their relationship with Epstein,” Wolff told me during tonight’s interview. That prospect—Trump under oath discussing Epstein—represents the disclosure the Trump family has spent years and millions of dollars trying to prevent.
The Photographs No One Has Seen
Wolff’s credibility on this subject comes from direct observation. In 2014, while interviewing Epstein for a potential biography, Epstein unlocked a safe in his Palm Beach home and displayed photographs “like playing cards” on a table—images showing Donald Trump with young, topless women. One photograph captured Trump in light-colored pants with a visible stain while multiple girls around him pointed and laughed.
When Wolff urged Epstein to make these photographs public once Trump became president, Epstein refused, suggesting he “wasn’t crazy” enough to cross Trump. The implication: even Epstein, who trafficked underage girls and blackmailed powerful men, feared what Trump might do in retaliation.
These photographs exist somewhere. The question is whether they’re buried in FBI evidence rooms or hidden in the still-unreleased “Epstein files” that both parties claim they want public but somehow never materialize.
The Modeling Connection
Both Trump and Epstein were obsessed with models—supermodels, runway models, catalog models, girls who dreamed of being models. This wasn’t casual interest; both men invested in modeling agencies and used them as recruitment pipelines. Melania fits directly into this ecosystem, arriving in New York in the 1990s when both Trump and Epstein were prowling the modeling circuit.
Photographs place all three together—Trump, Melania, and Epstein—at Mar-a-Lago in 2000, alongside Ghislaine Maxwell and Prince Andrew. This wasn’t a chance encounter; this was their world. The lawsuit threatening Wolff objects to him saying Melania “knew” Epstein, despite photographic evidence of exactly that.
The Trumps aren’t suing because Wolff is lying. They’re suing because he’s telling the truth, and they’re using litigation as a weapon to exhaust, intimidate, and silence anyone who connects those dots publicly.
Epstein’s Tapes and Trump’s Bubble
Wolff has released portions of his recorded interviews with Epstein, including Epstein casually describing himself as Trump’s “closest friend for ten years” and boasting intimate knowledge of Trump’s sexual habits. On tape, Epstein claimed “the first time [Trump] slept with [Melania] was on my plane”—suggesting their relationship began within Epstein’s orbit, on the infamous “Lolita Express.”
“I’ve long since come to understand that there are many things going on simultaneously in Jeffrey Epstein’s life,” Wolff reflected. Epstein operated under a “complex web of cause and effect that seemed like it could at any time take him down or make him rich.” Yet somehow he survived—until he couldn’t. It’s a tale of two friends: one becomes president, the other dies alone in a jail cell.
When I asked Wolff how Trump would react to his electoral defeats in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York, his answer revealed something crucial about Trump’s survival mechanism: “Donald Trump lives in his own world. It’s a bubble reality. In his mind, the world is as he wants it to be, and he pushes forward on that basis and only on that basis. There’s never a recalibration.”
Trump is “a man without an inner life,” Wolff added, which explains how he compartmentalizes everything—including his friendship with a sex trafficker who knew too much.
This explains how Trump survived four criminal indictments, a conviction, and now mounting evidence of his Epstein connections. He simply denies reality exists and assumes his will wins in the end. It’s worked so far.
What Comes Next
Wolff isn’t just defending himself—he’s going on offense. His new Substack, “Howl,” will document the legal case in real-time while methodically telling the Epstein story and covering Trump’s White House. He’s launched a GoFundMe to cover legal expenses because taking on a sitting president and First Lady requires serious resources. The Trumps have threatened or sued James Carville, The Daily Beast, and others over Epstein connections—most backed down or settled. Wolff’s fighting back, and he needs support to sustain a legal battle against unlimited Trump family resources.
“Right now, I’m just suing the First Lady with an eye that that might be the ultimate book,” Wolff quipped. He’s not planning another traditional Trump book—he’s done writing about White House chaos from the inside. But a legal discovery process forcing Trump to answer questions about Epstein? That’s a different book entirely.
But the stakes justify the cost. If Wolff succeeds in forcing Trump to testify under oath about Epstein, it could crack open the scandal that Trump has spent a decade trying to bury. We’ll finally get answers about the nature of their friendship, what Trump knew about Epstein’s trafficking operation, and whether Melania’s introduction to Trump happened through Epstein’s network.
The legal threats from Melania’s lawyers included James Carville and The Daily Beast among their targets. Most backed down. Wolff didn’t. He turned their billion-dollar threat into subpoena power, their intimidation into investigation.
Trump’s bubble reality may have protected him from four indictments, but it can’t protect him from sworn testimony. And that’s why Melania’s lawyers are threatening everyone who mentions Epstein’s name—because once Trump has to answer questions under oath, the bubble pops.
Michael Wolff just called their bluff. Now we’ll see if they’re willing to actually go to court and defend what they’ve spent years trying to hide. Wolff needs resources to sustain this fight—the GoFundMe link is available on his Substack. This isn’t just about one journalist’s legal defense; it’s about whether anyone can force Trump to tell the truth about Epstein under oath.
Michael Wolff ’s Substack “Howl” provides real-time updates on the Melania lawsuit, methodical Epstein reporting, and Trump White House coverage. His GoFundMe for legal defense is linked on his Substack at michaelwolff.substack.com. Subscribe to support independent journalism that powerful people are trying to silence.
Thank you Ellie Leonard, J Dziak, Debbie Hupp, Robin Payes, Ang Traders, and many others for tuning into my live video with Michael Wolff! Join me for my next live video in the app.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe
