A election-night anecdote revealed in Michael Wolff’s tell-all book about the Trump presidency is “false,” according to a British newspaper that agreed to pay damages and apologize to first lady Melania Trump.
The Daily Telegraph issued an apology to Trump on Saturday and said it would pay her “substantial damages” and legal costs stemming from its Jan. 19 Sunday magazine cover story, “The mystery of Melania.”
The article, written by U.S. author Nina Burleigh, included several inaccurate statements, the newspaper said. It has since been purged from the Telegraph’s website, as well as from others that reproduced the article.
Among the statements identified by The Telegraph as false was the claim that Trump cried on election night, which Burleigh attributed in her article to Wolff’s book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.
“Michael Wolff reported in his tell all book about the early Trump presidency, Fire and Fury, that she cried on election night,” the Telegraph’s article read, according to a reprint that remained online. “’She shed tears, but not of joy.’ On the campaign trail, she was a compliant but silent beauty, gliding on four-inch heels to sit, regal and still, on a chair behind the podium.”
The claim from Wolff’s book has been cited by other publications too.
A call to Wolff was not immediately returned.
Before Wolff’s book hit shelves — and as excerpts began circulating — Charles Harder, President Trump’s lawyer, sent Wolff and his publisher a letter notifying them they were investigating “numerous false and/or baseless statements” in the book.
Harder also warned they were examining possible legal action, including suing for libel, and ordered publisher Henry Holt and Company to halt publication.
The attorney did not respond to an inquiry regarding possible action against other outlets in the United Kingdom that repeated the claim Trump cried on election night or whether they were planning to move forward against Wolff.
