Third first lady Melania Trump is using Justice Department lawyers to enforce a non-disclosure agreement against a former friend who wrote a tell-all book about the third Mrs. Trump, NBC News reports.
Winston Wolkoff, a friend of Mrs. Trump who worked on President Trump’s poorly-attended inauguration, has also released a series of recorded conversation in which Mrs. Trump disparaged Christmas and efforts to reunite migrant children with their parents.
In 2017, Wolkoff signed a “Gratuitous Services Agreement” which essentially was a personal contract with Mrs. Trump to handle official work for the Office of the First Lady, including writing speeches and promoting Mrs. Trump’s “Be Best” initiative.
No government employee is held to a separate non-disclosure agreement, other than relating to classified information. Wolkoff, however, was not a government employee and worked for free for the Mrs. Trump.
The Department of Justice has filed a civil lawsuit against Wolkoff for publishing her bestselling book “Melania and Me.” In the lawsuit, the DoJ lawyers refer to the “Gratuitous Services Agreement” Wolkoff signed with Melania Trump.
“I would not have approved this agreement when I was White House counsel,” Neil Eggleston, who worked for President Barack Obama, told NBC News.