Trump’s wife files $150m lawsuit over 'escort' claim

LONDON (AA) – The wife of U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against a British newspaper that published allegations she was a sex worker in the 1990s.

Melania Trump said she was proceeding with her action even though the Daily Mail retracted the story on Friday, saying it regretted any “misinterpretation”.

Her lawsuit seeking $150 million in damages focuses on an Aug. 20 article, which was also published online, which claimed the modelling agency at which Melania Trump worked also served as an escort service.

The Daily Mail cited a Slovenian magazine as its source and said it did not suggest Melania Trump herself had ever worked in the sex business.

But lawyer Charles Harder, who Trump has appointed to represent her, said the article contained “lies”.

“These defendants made several statements about Mrs. Trump that are 100 percent false and tremendously damaging to her personal and professional reputation,” Harder said in a statement published by the U.K.'s Financial Times newspaper.

“Defendants broadcast their lies to millions of people throughout the U.S. and the world -- without any justification. Their many lies include, among others, that Mrs. Trump supposedly was an ‘escort’ in the 1990s before she met her husband. [The] defendants’ actions are so egregious, malicious and harmful to Mrs. Trump that her damages are estimated at $150 million.”

A blogger based in the U.S. state of Maryland is also named in the legal action.

Harder earlier this year represented Hulk Hogan, a retired high-profile U.S. wrestler, in a successful $140 million suit which resulted in the bankruptcy and closure of gossip website Gawker.

Melania Trump, who is originally from Slovenia, became a permanent U.S. resident in 2001 and married Donald Trump in 2005.