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- [00:00]
A
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B
You please@vrbo.com Same old Melania, still dodging service like she's some sort of Mike Tyson doesn't want to get served by a process server for Michael Wolf, the journalist lawsuit in New York and is using that as continued grounds to get his case to stop her $1 billion defamation case against him from getting off the ground. That in a brand new filing that just got made by Melania Trump in the last several hours in federal court in New York. She complains about a lot of things in her letter brief, and we'll talk about the procedure there. But her fundamental argument, her primary argument, is that the doorman got served. I didn't get served. Well, maybe that's because you've been dodging service by bobbing and weaving to avoid it, moving around like you're some sort of MX missile or you're some sort of shell game, moving between Mar A Lago and Trump Tower and Bedminster and occasionally the White House. Catch me if you can. Well, that doesn't work in federal practice. We'll talk about that and why that's a losing argument. But what she's really trying to do as a fallback is get the case moved from New York to Southern District of Florida, where she may get Judge Cannon. Is this all a ruse to get before Donald Trump's favorite judge? We talk about it here on Midas Touch and Legal af. I'm Michael Popak following closely all things Melania and Michael Wolf. Now, journalist Michael Wolf got a demand letter back in October threatening him on letterhead from Donald Trump's lawyer representing Melania, a guy named Alejandro Brito demanding a billion dollars from journalist Michael Wolf because there was reports in the Daily Beast and other places Michael's been very public about his journalism, about comments Michael made primarily repeating what a subject for his book. Jeffrey Epstein told him about Melania and then other things that are public and other things that Michael through his investigative reporting ferreted out and connected the dots between Epstein and Melania and Trump and Epstein and Melania and models and bottles and girls and that. Right. And made some comments about what happened on the Lolita Express and where maybe Donald Trump and Melania had sex for the first time. You know, all coming out of the mouth and typewriter of Michael Wolf. In fact, to remind you Michael Wolf has been on Legal AF before more than once. Here is a clip to remind you of things Michael Wolf has said about Melania. Let's play the clip.
- [03:26]
C
I just want to note that Melania Trump has filed a suit against you and you have filed a suit against her for suppressing her your freedom of speech.
- [03:43]
D
Let me just slightly correct you on that. She has threatened to sue me for a billion dollars. I acted before she did and sued her and I have now yet to hear anything from her. She hasn't reacted in any way. She certainly has not sued me. And so everything that we anticipated that she would countersue that she would move to change jurisdictions. We're suing her in New York has not happened. So we are proceeding with our suit against her. Is may have decided to cut her losses and not only not sue me but run in the other direction.
- [04:39]
C
Well she's threatened a lot of people and what's interesting in your case is that and in others is she hasn't formally filed in a court of law and maybe these are simply attempts with lawyers letters to intimidate any.
- [04:55]
D
Which is, which is exactly the basis on which we are suing her. It's, it's she is we, we are maintain suing under the anti slap laws in New York State which which precisely go after the the idea that someone can use libel law or the threats of libel suits the to shut you up. That's in New York state that is illegal.
- [05:26]
C
Yeah. So here's a question. Would you be surprised if she were mentioned in the Epstein files?
- [05:38]
D
I would not. I know that Epstein knew her. That Epstein spent a lot of time talking to Donald Trump about women including the women he he marries.
- [05:56]
B
Now he gets a demand letter as a journalist for a billion dollars unless he retracts apologizes for these defamatory statements. And she listed a bunch in the from the Daily Beast article and other places. Well Michael Beater to the punch. He filed a lawsuit in October and it landed in New York State Supreme Court. The trial level court in New York. Smart move. I practice law. New York State Supreme. Good place to go rather than federal court for a case like this. And he asked for a declaration from the judge to declare that every one of those statements is either true about Melania and Epstein or otherwise or can't be the subject of a defamation case. And to have the judge declare that the threat that's being made in is is an attempt, unconstitutional attempt to chill Michael Wolf's First Amendment right and free speech. Relatively straightforward. Well, they didn't like that suit. Now, in order to get a lawsuit off the ground and commenced, you have to serve it on the other side. Filing it in court is not enough. You have to obtain service over the person. There's also jurisdictional concerns, but you have to get service. You have to do generally, unless you're allowed by the judge or by some statute to effectuate alternative service or substitute service, you generally have to hand the document with a process server, just like old timey times, into the hands of the defendant. Well, Melania has spent most of October, November and through the holidays dodging service. In fact, that's her number one argument in the new filing in federal court. No personal jurisdiction over me, judge. Right, because you keep, you keep playing whack a mole with the process servers. Now, in federal court, that doesn't generally work. First of all, there's ways to obtain from the judge approved alternative service. If a person's really evading service, you can ultimately serve the Secretary of state of that state and publish it in a newspaper. And that can be service. The judge can say, just put it here or put it there or email it or whatever. The judge can come up with other methods of service.
- [08:11]
E
Hey everybody, Ben Meiselis here from the Midas Touch Network. I wanted to let you know about my podcast partner Michael Popak's new law firm. It's called the Popak Firm. Michael Popak's pursuing his dream of starting his own law firm. Really based on the popular demand by all the Midas mighty and legal A effers who are approaching Michael Popak with their cases and saying, can you help us? And at that time, Popak was not able to. So he went out on his own. He started the Popoc firm where he is now handling catastrophic injury cases like car accident cases, trucking cases, malpractice cases, big negligence cases, wrongful death cases. So if you or someone you know have a case like this, the consultation with Popo firm is free. Give him a call, see if you have a case, it's the Popoc firm.com thepopoc firm.com or you can call 877-popak-af- P O P O K A F. So 1-877-p-o P O K A F give Michael Popak a call. And I'm really proud of you, Popak. Thanks for all the hard work you're putting in.
- [09:25]
B
What did they do? They handed it to a doorman at Trump Tower. I mean, her name's on the building. And also sent it to her lawyer. They obviously know about the lawsuit, which is what you want to ensure happens with service because they're filing papers around it. So if I'm Michael Wolf's lawyers, I say waiver, you've waived this argument. And in federal court, you can't f around with service because there's methods and methodologies to shift the burden back to you. They can send a notice to her lawyers and say, you got 60 days to accept service. If you don't accept service, you're gonna pay the cost of us having to serve you. And federal judges, even ones like Judge Vocasil, who was appointed by Donald Trump, they don't like defendants evading service. That's her first argument. I'm gonna read it to you. Her second argument is no personal jurisdiction over me in New York, which is sort of laugh out loud funny. We know for people that are in and around New York that Melania's here an awful lot. Shopping sprees, spa days, ladies who lunch, charity, keeping an eye down Fifth Avenue on her son Baron. She's in New York a hell of a lot. And to say that there's no jurisdiction over her. There's two arguments there. We'll do a little teach out. 1. If you. We call. We call. Personal jurisdiction falls into two main categories. General jurisdiction or specific jurisdiction. General jurisdiction is you are so much in that state, like where you live that we can sue you for anything anywhere in your state. That's general jurisdiction over you. Specific is you don't maybe live in the state, but you're there enough. Or the events around the cause of action arose or occurred in New York. Now, look, the demand letter sent by Alejandro Brito, the lawyer for Melania and Donald Trump was mailed to Michael Wolf in New York, making the demand. I think they're screwed in New York is what I'm trying to say. And then lastly, they're arguing at the last moment. Judge, even if you kept the case in New York, because there's a. There's a. There's going to be motion practice now about whether the case stays in New York or not. It should be transferred by you in federal court to federal court in Southern District of Florida. Where. And near where she lives in Palm Beach County. Well, there's only three judges near where she lives in Palm Beach County. Judge Rosenberg in West Palm Beach, Judge Middlebrooks in West Palm beach, and Judge Cannon in Fort Pierce, Florida. And Middlebrooks, I think is. I think is senior status. So it's really going to be a 50, 50 shot. They're shooting for Cannon. You can tell, you know, so they. Wolf side, just to keep score, want to keep the case in New York state court. The Melania side want to transfer it to federal court, have it dismissed because she hasn't been served and. Or there's no personal jurisdiction over her in New York. And failing that, have it transferred to federal. To federal down to Florida. Now, here's what the. Let me leave. Let me read to you from the, the letter that was just filed. This is how it works in federal practice in New York. You have to ask permission. Permission before you file your motion in state court. Generally, you just file your motion. Here. You need to have a conference call with the judge. I've, I've participated in dozens of these. During the conference call, you effectively argue your motion. It's like a ghost motion. You haven't filed it yet, but you start arguing it and you argue against it. Judge listens to the argument, says, yeah, that sounds like it has merit. File the motion. And then you have the formal filing and the briefing schedule and oral. And sometimes an oral argument. Not always in federal court. Sometimes it's, it's a, it's resolved by the judge on the, on reading the motion papers. I've filed dozens and dozens of motions to dismiss in federal court. I think I had oral argument once. Here's what it says. We represent the first lady of the United States. And who's the we? Well, it's Alejandro Brito, but it's this other firm, DLA Piper. Who's DLA Piper? Well, in 20. In 2020. 2021, they said Donald Trump was unfit for office. But in 2022, and, and currently they represent Donald Trump and Truth Social on all their corporate affairs. So we represent the first lady. We anticipate filing a motion to dismiss for insufficient service of process. See, they lead off with their. What they think is their strongest argument. The doorman got served the. What a coward. Lack of personal jurisdiction. You can't sue me in New York even though my Name's on the building. And failure to state a claim or to transfer the case to the Southern District of Florida. See, I think that's the one they really want. They want to get this in front of Judge Cannon or try to. Then they go through all of their arguments about, you know, the service of process is defective, she hasn't been personally served, and she needs to be. Spends about a third of this argument on that issue. Then they argue that there's no general jurisdiction over her, that she lives at Mar a Lago. I'm not sure she lives at Mar a Lago. And what's going to happen here is Wolf's lawyers are going to ask for jurisdictional discovery and determine where she really lives. Whose bed is she in, I guess is the right way to put it, and where and for how long so that that door has been open. And then finally. But here's the part I think is really what they're seeking. This is on page three. Lastly, if the court is not inclined to dismiss the case on the ground set forth above, the court should transfer the case to the Southern District of Florida. She is domiciled in Palm Beach, Florida, within the Southern District of Florida. Now, Judge Vocasil, even though she's a Trump appointee who's helped Trump in the past indirectly, she can't. Judge Vocasil can't place the case in Judge Cannon's hands. She can send it to the Southern District of Florida clerk. They can lodge it in the West Palm beach division. And then through Random Wheel, it'll either be Rosenberg or Cannon, and we'll be holding our breath to see which one. So they end it with, this case should be dismissed. And if it proceeds at all, which it should not, it should proceed in the Southern District of Florida. Signed Alejandro Brito, who is not admitted to practice in New York, but apparently is going to be filing a motion to become admitted. And Karen Shechtman at DLA Piper, who's Donald Trump's corporate lawyers, that I think they should get First Amendment lawyers involved in this. Their main argument on the merits is that you can't run into federal, state court or any court, ask for a declaration that comments that are made are not defamatory. Sure you can. Absolutely you can. Or that this is a slap strategic litigation against public participation case to try to chill somebody's First Amendment rights. I totally disagree. I don't think they know what they're talking about. And we'll have to see what Judge Vocasil does next. Follow it here on Midas touch and on Legal AF, come over to Legal AF, the YouTube channel, Legal AF the substack where we're running a sale, 20% off on annual memberships this week. So until my next report, I'm Michael Popak. Can't get your fill of Legal af. Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do called wait for it Morning af. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AOFF are there as well. Well, we got some new reporting, we got interviews, we got ad free versions of the podcast. And hot takes where Legal AF on substack, come over now to free subscribe.