Donald Trump’s Department of Justice got directly involved itself in trying to enforce a 2017 non-disclosure agreement signed between Stephanie Winston Wolkoff — the first lady’s former adviser and close friend — and Melania Trump over her tell-all book: Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady. The book flew off the shelves and is now a #1 bestseller. And let’s just say that Wolkoff doesn’t feel chummy with Melania anymore, and revealed embarrassing moments with the first lady.
So, of course, since the Trump administration isn’t already a badly scripted soap opera, Attorney General Bill Barr’s Justice Department has sued Wolkoff for allegedly breaking a nondisclosure agreement with her book about the first lady, according to the Daily Mail.
The outlet reports that lawyers with the Department of Justice asked the U.S. District Court in Washington to put the profits from the tell-all book in a government trust. The lawyers argue that Wolkoff failed to submit a draft of her book for review to the government.
“The United States seeks to hold Ms. Wolkoff to her contractual and fiduciary obligations and to ensure that she is not unjustly enriched by her breach of the duties she freely assumed when she served as an adviser to the first lady,” a copy of the complaint states.
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DOJ lawyers wrote, according to the Daily Beast, “Ms. Wolkoff agreed, among other things, ‘that [she was] specifically prohibited from publishing, reproducing or otherwise divulging any such information to any unauthorized person or entity in whole or in part.’”
The complaint further says that in August of 2017, Wolkoff and Trump signed a “Gratuitous Services Agreement” related to “nonpublic, privileged and/or confidential information” that she might obtain during her service under the agreement.
“This was a contract with the United States and therefore enforceable by the United States,” Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said.
Of course, we haven’t had to worry about tell-all books dishing the dirt out on first families in the past, but with Trump — a former reality show star — at the helm, nothing is normal anymore. And the Justice Department appears to be serving as Trump’s attorneys. 21 days left until America can divorce its abusive boyfriend.
Featured image via Political Tribune gallery
