A federal judge in Manhattan has thrown out journalist Michael Wolff’s unusual lawsuit against Melania Trump, ruling that he cannot ask a court to pre-approve his legal defenses before an actual defamation case has even been filed.
The 45-page opinion, issued by U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil in the Southern District of New York, dismisses Wolff’s case in full while delivering unusually pointed criticism toward the broader litigation strategy used throughout the dispute.
At the center of the ruling is a relatively simple principle that became buried beneath political intrigue, Epstein references, billion-dollar threats, and aggressive procedural maneuvering: courts generally do not issue advisory opinions about hypothetical future lawsuits.