Melania Trump’s libel lawsuit against a blogger who alleged the first lady was involved in a high-end escort service will move forward.

NBC News reports that Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Sharon Burrell ruled to continue on with the lawsuit against blogger Webster Tarpley.

"The court finds the plaintiff has stated a claim for defamation," Burrell said, according to Politico. "The court believes most people, when they hear the words 'high-end escort' that describes a prostitute. There could be no more defamatory statement than to call a woman a prostitute."

The judge ignored Tarpley's attorney's, Danielle Giroux's, assertions that the writer was protected by his First Amendment rights, and that he was simply "provoking conversation" on a rumor circulating about a public figure.

“He did not say that Melania Trump was a high-class escort. What he said was there are rumors about that,” Giroux said. "He's writing about the rumors and that, itself, is newsworthy."

Melania Trump has also filed a lawsuit against the UK’s Daily Mail for publishing a similar article questioning her ties to an escort agency.



If the case moves forward, it won't hit the courts until November, 2017.

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Laura Beck Laura Beck is a Los Angeles-based TV writer and frequent contributor to Cosmopolitan.com — her work has appeared in the New York Times, New Yorker, Jezebel, and the Village Voice.

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