The Justice Department dropped a lawsuit Monday accusing a former adviser to Melania Trump of breaking an agreement not to disclose confidential information in her tell-all book about the former first lady.
A federal judge dismissed the suit against Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, the author of “Melania and Me,” in a one-sentence order. The move reflects a sharp about-face by the Justice Department under President Joe Biden.
The lawsuit, filed last year in federal court in Washington, D.C., argued Wolkoff violated an agreement she signed in 2017 while working as an aide to President Donald Trump’s wife. The Justice Department said at the time that Wolkoff didn’t submit a draft of her book to the first lady, her chief of staff or the Office of White House Counsel and never received authorization to disclose any information she learned in her position.
Wolkoff said she fulfilled all the terms of her agreement and the confidentiality provisions ended when her contract was terminated.
“We are very pleased that the Department of Justice has dismissed this lawsuit,” her attorney, Lorin Reisner, said in an emailed statement.
The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Under Trump, the Justice Department also sued former national security adviser John Bolton over the publication of his memoir, and other former aides, including Omarosa Manigault-Newman, a onetime contestant on Trump’s reality TV show.
The case is U.S. v. Wolkoff, 20-cv-02935, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).
