Melania Trump sues over Daily Mail story suggesting she was an escort

Melania Trump, wife of the Republican nominee for U.S. President, filed a defamation lawsuit on Thursday against Mail Media, parent company of the UK publication, The Daily Mail.

In a complaint lodged in Maryland Circuit Court, Ms. Trump is taking issue with an Aug. 19 article entitled, "Naked photoshoots, and troubling questions about visas that won't go away: The VERY racy past of Donald Trump's Slovenian wife."

She is represented by Charles Harder, the same attorney who represented Hulk Hogan in a huge trial court victory that bankrupted Gawker Media with a $140 million verdict.

Click through images of Melania Trump here:

The story in The Daily Mail covered Trump's journey to New York in the mid-1990s and raised questions about her past based on "highly-charged, lesbian-themed, nude photographs," the exact timing of when she traveled to the U.S. on a visa, and her time working for a modeling agency. The article relied on the work of a Slovenian journalist who had co-authored an authorized biography of Ms. Trump as well as a report in a Slovenian magazine to make the claim that her modeling agency was run by a New York entrepreneur, who also ran an escort agency for wealthy clients.

The article stated, "What Melania's [composite card] looked like only the people involved know, but it is no coincidence she got a rich husband."

According to Trump's lawsuit, "The statements of fact in the Daily Mail Article are false. Plaintiff did legitimate and legal modeling work for legitimate business entities and did not work for any 'gentleman's club' or 'escort' agencies. Plaintiff was not a sex worker, escort or prostitute in any way, shape or form, nor did she ever have a composite or presentation card for the sex business. Plaintiff did not come to the United States until 1996. Thus, Plaintiff did not, and could not have participated in a photo shoot in the United States or met her current husband in the United States prior to that time."

The lawsuit follows legal threats sent out by Trump's lawyer to a number of publications including Politico.

Trump asserts that the The Daily Mail consciously doubted the truth of the claims in the article, but decided to publish it anyway, and that reporters there can't simply rely on "unsubstantiated" claims and "an unauthorized book written by malicious and bitter 'reporters' who have never met or spoken to Ms. Trump."