When Melania Trump’s attorneys sent journalist Michael Wolff a Florida pre-suit demand letter threatening a billion-dollar defamation suit, Wolff didn’t wait to be sued — he sued first, asserting an affirmative claim under New York’s anti-SLAPP law on the theory that the demand letter itself constituted a SLAPP “claim.” This article examines the textual and policy arguments for and against Wolff’s novel legal theory, explores whether a New York court might accept it, and explains why the same preemptive strategy would be unavailable to a California speaker facing an identical threat.
