Melania Trump threatens to sue People, journalist who says she was assaulted by Donald Trump

Donald and Melania Trump in 2005
(Image credit: Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

On Wednesday night, People published a first-person account by former staff writer Natasha Stoynoff of what she says were aggressive, unwanted sexual advances by Donald Trump while she was writing a glowing profile of his first year of marriage to Melania Trump. Donald Trump denied the allegation on Thursday, saying it was made up, the room where he allegedly pinned her against the wall and kissed her had "glass walls", and that he would not have assaulted her and proposed they have an extramarital affair because "look at her."

Also on Thursday, Melania Trump, through lawyer Charles Harder — who sued Gawker to death — threatened to sue People for damages if it did not retract and apologize for three "false and completely fictionalized" lines in Stoynoff's account. Those lines?

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.