First Lady Melania Trump will settle her $150 million defamation lawsuit she filed last year against Maryland blogger Webster G. Tarpley, who claimed she was an escort during her modeling career.
"The first lady of the United States has settled her lawsuit against Webster Griffin Tarpley of Maryland," Trump’s attorney, Charles Harder, said in a statement, according to the Washingtonian. "Mr. Tarpley has issued the attached retraction and apology to Mrs. Trump and her family, and agreed to pay her a substantial sum as a settlement."
Last year, Tarpley wrote on his website, Tarpley.net, that Trump had a "breakdown" after she was accused of plagiarizing parts of her speech at the Republican National Convention and that she had worked as a high-end escort during her modeling career.
Tarpley was a co-defendant with the Daily Mail, which also posted the rumors. The case against the Daily Mail's corporate publisher, Mail Media Inc., was dismissed last week over questions of whether the case should have been filed in Maryland. Trump subsequently refiled the lawsuit in New York.
Tarpley issued a statement on Tuesday, first reported by LawNez.com, in which he apologized for his posts from August.
"I posted an article on August 2, 2016 about Melania Trump that was replete with false and defamatory statements about her. I had no legitimate factual basis to make these false statements and I fully retract them," Tarpley said.
"I acknowledge that these false statements were very harmful and hurtful to Mrs. Trump and her family, and therefore I sincerely apologize to Mrs. Trump, her son, her husband and her parents for making these false statements," the statement continued.
The first lady first brought charges against Tarpley and the Daily Mail in September, after they retracted the articles.