Melania Trump files $150m lawsuit against UK Daily Mail and blogger over reports that she was an 'escort' in the 90s

Melania Trump, former model and the wife of US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, sued the US-based publisher of the Daily Mail Online and a blogger over stories making false and defamatory statements about her supposedly being an escort in the 1990s.

The Daily Mail story last month cited a Slovenian magazine’s report that a modeling agency that Trump worked with in New York in the 1990s also served as an escort business, linking wealthy clients with women for sexual services. 

On Thursday September 1st, The Daily Mail retracted the story in a post on its website:

"To the extent that anything in the Daily Mail’s article was interpreted as stating or suggesting that Mrs. Trump worked as an ‘escort’ or in the ‘sex business’… is hereby retracted, and the Daily Mail newspaper regrets any such misinterpretation"

Trump had notified the British newspaper and other news organizations on August 22 that she would take legal action, Trump’s attorney, Charles Harder, said in an email at the time, calling the reports "outright lying."

"These defendants made several statements about Mrs. Trump that are 100 percent false and tremendously damaging to her personal and professional reputation," he said in a statement on Thursday.

The lawsuit filed in state circuit court in Montgomery County, Maryland, alleges that the Maryland blogger, Webster Griffin Tarpley, published "false and defamatory statements" about Trump, including that the former model had suffered from “a full-blown nervous breakdown."

"Defendants’ actions are so egregious, malicious and harmful to Mrs. Trump that her damages are estimated at 150 million dollars," her lawyer’s statement said

Tarpley said in a statement that the lawsuit is without merit. 

"We are confident that Mrs. Trump will not be able to meet her high burden of proving the statements published about her on my website were defamatory in any way," he said.

Source: Daily Mail/Reuters

Anambra community declares 4 chiefs missing On September 2, 20168:02 amIn NewsComments By Emeka Mamah ENUGU—The Abagana Welfare Association, AWA, in Anambra State has declared four prominent traditional leaders of the community missing. Governor Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State (2nd right); outgoing state Commissioner of Police, AIG Usman Gwary; Special Adviser on Security, Mr Chikaodi Anambra and DCP Adeoye Finihan during the presentation of three refurbished Armoured Personnel Carriers to Anambra State Police Command at Governor’s Lodge, Amawbia, Anambra State. Governor Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State (2nd right) The Onowu (traditional Prime Minister) of Abagana, High Chief Alfred Onugha who spoke in a telephone interview with Vanguard, yesterday, said that those allegedly missing after the police invasion of Abagana community following the land dispute between the people and Ukpo community include High Chiefs Amobi Ezekwe, Eugene Anene, Stephen Ezediegwu and Charles Nwazojie. This was even as police sources said in Awka that the traditional chiefs who were arrested on August 19 in their residences over alleged conduct likely to cause a breach of peace were helping detectives in their investigations over the issue. However, AWA asked the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Ibrahim Idris, to compel the state Police Commissioner, Samuel Okaula, to immediately release all persons arrested in the wake of the latest round of clashes between the two communities or, in the alternative, charge them to court. They said that some of those arrested in the land dispute were paraded as terrorists while the whereabouts of others including the high chiefs were unknown. In a petition to the IGP, AWA also, accused the state police command of allegedly taking sides in the said land dispute, pointing out that the activities of the command had increased threats to the peace, law and order in the area. The petition was signed by Counsel to the community’s umbrella union of all the cultural associations, Emma Ifeadike. AWA noted that the Police Commissioner and his subordinates, especially the Area Commander (Awka) ACP Longe, and the Divisional Police Officers, DPOs, in charge of Dunukofia and Njikoka Local Government Areas, laid siege on the Abagana community as they had become pawns on the chessboard of a billionaire and business mogul native of Ukpo community (name withheld). The community stressed that the land feud between the two communities was before the Court of Appeal in Enugu (in case numbers CA/E/86/2002 and motion CA/110M/2015), adding that despite the pendency of the case, hundreds of thugs were mobilized into the disputed land last June to bulldoze several properties, farmlands and economic trees belonging to members of Abagana community. According to them, the Ukpo Community had since built a police post on the disputed land, “with illegal police protection…, apparently to frustrate the upcoming appeal court case.” According to them, “Since August 20, 2016 when the youth of both communities engaged in renewed confrontation, scores of leaders of Abagana community have been arrested in midnight swoops by policemen, with most of them still languishing in detention. “The mass arrest is believed to be targeted at people close to Chief Emmanuel Nwude, (Owelle Abagana) who is suspected to be financing the court case against Ukpo. “Curiously, barely 24 after the arrest, Commissioner of Police, COMPOL Samuel Okaula addressed a world press conference where he paraded 10 workers of EM Guest Inn, Abagana, owned by High Chief Emma Nwude, and branded them as terrorists.” Ifeadike then urged the IGP to take-over investigations into the most recent bout of violence on the Abagana-Ukpo border as his subordinates in Anambra had largely been compromised and can no longer be trusted to conduct an impartial investigation.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/09/anambra-community-declares-4-chiefs-missing/

Anambra community declares 4 chiefs missing On September 2, 20168:02 amIn NewsComments By Emeka Mamah ENUGU—The Abagana Welfare Association, AWA, in Anambra State has declared four prominent traditional leaders of the community missing. Governor Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State (2nd right); outgoing state Commissioner of Police, AIG Usman Gwary; Special Adviser on Security, Mr Chikaodi Anambra and DCP Adeoye Finihan during the presentation of three refurbished Armoured Personnel Carriers to Anambra State Police Command at Governor’s Lodge, Amawbia, Anambra State. Governor Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State (2nd right) The Onowu (traditional Prime Minister) of Abagana, High Chief Alfred Onugha who spoke in a telephone interview with Vanguard, yesterday, said that those allegedly missing after the police invasion of Abagana community following the land dispute between the people and Ukpo community include High Chiefs Amobi Ezekwe, Eugene Anene, Stephen Ezediegwu and Charles Nwazojie. This was even as police sources said in Awka that the traditional chiefs who were arrested on August 19 in their residences over alleged conduct likely to cause a breach of peace were helping detectives in their investigations over the issue. However, AWA asked the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Ibrahim Idris, to compel the state Police Commissioner, Samuel Okaula, to immediately release all persons arrested in the wake of the latest round of clashes between the two communities or, in the alternative, charge them to court. They said that some of those arrested in the land dispute were paraded as terrorists while the whereabouts of others including the high chiefs were unknown. In a petition to the IGP, AWA also, accused the state police command of allegedly taking sides in the said land dispute, pointing out that the activities of the command had increased threats to the peace, law and order in the area. The petition was signed by Counsel to the community’s umbrella union of all the cultural associations, Emma Ifeadike. AWA noted that the Police Commissioner and his subordinates, especially the Area Commander (Awka) ACP Longe, and the Divisional Police Officers, DPOs, in charge of Dunukofia and Njikoka Local Government Areas, laid siege on the Abagana community as they had become pawns on the chessboard of a billionaire and business mogul native of Ukpo community (name withheld). The community stressed that the land feud between the two communities was before the Court of Appeal in Enugu (in case numbers CA/E/86/2002 and motion CA/110M/2015), adding that despite the pendency of the case, hundreds of thugs were mobilized into the disputed land last June to bulldoze several properties, farmlands and economic trees belonging to members of Abagana community. According to them, the Ukpo Community had since built a police post on the disputed land, “with illegal police protection…, apparently to frustrate the upcoming appeal court case.” According to them, “Since August 20, 2016 when the youth of both communities engaged in renewed confrontation, scores of leaders of Abagana community have been arrested in midnight swoops by policemen, with most of them still languishing in detention. “The mass arrest is believed to be targeted at people close to Chief Emmanuel Nwude, (Owelle Abagana) who is suspected to be financing the court case against Ukpo. “Curiously, barely 24 after the arrest, Commissioner of Police, COMPOL Samuel Okaula addressed a world press conference where he paraded 10 workers of EM Guest Inn, Abagana, owned by High Chief Emma Nwude, and branded them as terrorists.” Ifeadike then urged the IGP to take-over investigations into the most recent bout of violence on the Abagana-Ukpo border as his subordinates in Anambra had largely been compromised and can no longer be trusted to conduct an impartial investigation.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/09/anambra-community-declares-4-chiefs-missing/

Anambra community declares 4 chiefs missing On September 2, 20168:02 amIn NewsComments By Emeka Mamah ENUGU—The Abagana Welfare Association, AWA, in Anambra State has declared four prominent traditional leaders of the community missing. Governor Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State (2nd right); outgoing state Commissioner of Police, AIG Usman Gwary; Special Adviser on Security, Mr Chikaodi Anambra and DCP Adeoye Finihan during the presentation of three refurbished Armoured Personnel Carriers to Anambra State Police Command at Governor’s Lodge, Amawbia, Anambra State. Governor Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State (2nd right) The Onowu (traditional Prime Minister) of Abagana, High Chief Alfred Onugha who spoke in a telephone interview with Vanguard, yesterday, said that those allegedly missing after the police invasion of Abagana community following the land dispute between the people and Ukpo community include High Chiefs Amobi Ezekwe, Eugene Anene, Stephen Ezediegwu and Charles Nwazojie. This was even as police sources said in Awka that the traditional chiefs who were arrested on August 19 in their residences over alleged conduct likely to cause a breach of peace were helping detectives in their investigations over the issue. However, AWA asked the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Ibrahim Idris, to compel the state Police Commissioner, Samuel Okaula, to immediately release all persons arrested in the wake of the latest round of clashes between the two communities or, in the alternative, charge them to court. They said that some of those arrested in the land dispute were paraded as terrorists while the whereabouts of others including the high chiefs were unknown. In a petition to the IGP, AWA also, accused the state police command of allegedly taking sides in the said land dispute, pointing out that the activities of the command had increased threats to the peace, law and order in the area. The petition was signed by Counsel to the community’s umbrella union of all the cultural associations, Emma Ifeadike. AWA noted that the Police Commissioner and his subordinates, especially the Area Commander (Awka) ACP Longe, and the Divisional Police Officers, DPOs, in charge of Dunukofia and Njikoka Local Government Areas, laid siege on the Abagana community as they had become pawns on the chessboard of a billionaire and business mogul native of Ukpo community (name withheld). The community stressed that the land feud between the two communities was before the Court of Appeal in Enugu (in case numbers CA/E/86/2002 and motion CA/110M/2015), adding that despite the pendency of the case, hundreds of thugs were mobilized into the disputed land last June to bulldoze several properties, farmlands and economic trees belonging to members of Abagana community. According to them, the Ukpo Community had since built a police post on the disputed land, “with illegal police protection…, apparently to frustrate the upcoming appeal court case.” According to them, “Since August 20, 2016 when the youth of both communities engaged in renewed confrontation, scores of leaders of Abagana community have been arrested in midnight swoops by policemen, with most of them still languishing in detention. “The mass arrest is believed to be targeted at people close to Chief Emmanuel Nwude, (Owelle Abagana) who is suspected to be financing the court case against Ukpo. “Curiously, barely 24 after the arrest, Commissioner of Police, COMPOL Samuel Okaula addressed a world press conference where he paraded 10 workers of EM Guest Inn, Abagana, owned by High Chief Emma Nwude, and branded them as terrorists.” Ifeadike then urged the IGP to take-over investigations into the most recent bout of violence on the Abagana-Ukpo border as his subordinates in Anambra had largely been compromised and can no longer be trusted to conduct an impartial investigation.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/09/anambra-community-declares-4-chiefs-missing/