WASHINGTON (TNND) -- Author Michael Wolff said that he would be suing First Lady Melania Trump after she threatened to sue him over comments he made about her alleged connections to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Wolff said that Melania threatened to sue him for $1 billion in damages if he didn't retract comments linking her to Epstein.
He sought damages in the lawsuit filed earlier this week at a court in Manhattan.
"First Lady Melania Trump is proud to continue standing up to those who spread malicious and defamatory falsehoods as they desperately try to get undeserved attention and money from their unlawful conduct," a spokesperson for Melania Trump said in response to the lawsuit, according to The Associated Press.
In the beginning of October, Harpers Collins UK said it would retract passages from a recently published book that detailed "unverified" claims that Melania Trump met her husband through Epstein.
"Copies of the book that include those references are being permanently removed from distribution. HarperCollins UK apologizes to the First Lady," Harper Collins UK said in a statement.
Epstein died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.
He pleaded guilty to similar state-level charges in Florida in 2008.