In settlement, first lady to get blogger's apology

First lady Melania Trump has settled her defamation lawsuit against a Maryland blogger, who agreed to apologize to the Trump family and pay her a "substantial sum," her lawyers said in a statement Tuesday morning.

"I posted an article on August 2, 2016, about Melania Trump that was replete with false and defamatory statements about her," the blogger, Webster Tarpley, said in the statement provided by Trump's attorneys.

Tarpley, 71 of Gaithersburg, Md., did not immediately respond to requests for comment. One of his attorneys, Danielle Giroux, confirmed that a settlement had been reached.

Trump's attorneys at the firm of Harder, Mirell & Abrams, based in Beverly Hills, Calif., declined to provide the settlement amount.

The blogger's article in August reported about unfounded rumors that Melania Trump once worked as an escort.

"I had no legitimate factual basis to make these false statements and I fully retract them," according to comments attributed to Tarpley by the Trump attorneys in their statement. "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."

Melania Trump also has sued the online Daily Mail, which published a similar article in August. A Maryland judge this month tossed out that litigation -- which like the Tarpley claims were filed in Montgomery County -- based on jurisdictional issues. Trump's attorneys provided a copy of the refiled lawsuit they said they entered in New York state court.

Melania Trump attended a hearing in December on the case at a courtroom in Rockville, Md.

In the new court documents filed Monday in Manhattan, Melania Trump's lawyers said that during the "multi-year term" during which she "is one of the most photographed women in the world" could mean millions of dollars for her personal brand.

In the filing, Trump's lawyers argued that the now retracted report was not only false and libelous, but also damaged her ability to profit off her high profile and affected her business opportunities.

[EMAIL UPDATES: Get free breaking news alerts, daily newsletters with top headlines delivered to your inbox]

While the new documents don't specifically mention her term as first lady, the statement about her expected profits drew swift condemnation from ethics watchdogs as inappropriate profiteering from her high-profile position, which is typically centered on public service.

Richard Painter, who advised former President George W. Bush on ethics and one of a group of attorneys suing President Donald Trump for potentially violating a constitutional clause that prohibits presidents from receiving foreign gifts or payments, said the filing shows Melania Trump is engaging "in an unprecedented, clear breach of rules about using her government position for private gain."

But Charles Harder, Melania Trump's attorney, said "the first lady has no intention of using her position for profit and will not do so. It is not a possibility. Any statements to the contrary are being misinterpreted."

Information for this article was contributed by Dan Morse of The Washington Post and Julie Bykowicz of The Associated Press.

A Section on 02/08/2017