Perhaps one of the most disturbing aspects of the war on Trump has been the media and political foe’s eagerness to drag the billionaire iconoclast’s family into the scrum. The top target has been Trump’s wife Melania who has been slut-shamed by Ted Cruz allies, accused of plagiarism over her speech at the Republican convention, had nude pictures published of her and was accused of being a prostitute. It was the last one that finally led to belated legal retaliation and Mrs. Trump sued the bastards over a Daily Mail story for calling the potential First Lady a whore. Being faced with a multi-million- dollar loss, the paper has retracted the story.

The Associated Press reports “Daily Mail retracts Melania Trump escort agency story”:

The Daily Mail newspaper has retracted a story about Melania Trump after her lawyers filed a lawsuit in the United States accusing the newspaper and a Maryland blogger of publishing false statements about her alleged involvement with an escort agency.

The retraction published Friday said the newspaper and its popular website “did not intend to state or suggest that these allegations” about the wife of the Republican presidential nominee were true.

“The point of the article was that these allegations could impact the U.S. presidential election even if they are untrue,” the retraction said.

It ended by stating that the editors “regret any such misinterpretations” about the story published on Aug. 20.

Trump filed suit against the Daily Mail Online and a Maryland website Thursday in a Maryland state court.

According to the Daily Mail’s official statement published Friday “Melania Trump: A retraction”:

On August 20, 2016, an article was published in the Daily Mail newspaper titled ‘Racy photos, and troubling questions about his wife’s past that could derail Trump.’

The article discussed whether allegations being made about Melania Trump could negatively affect her husband Donald Trump’s presidential bid. Among other things, the article noted that allegations have been made in a book available on Amazon about a modeling agency where Mrs. Trump worked in Milan being ‘something like a gentleman’s club,’ and an article published by Suzy, a Slovenian magazine, alleged that Mrs. Trump’s modeling agency in New York, run by Paolo Zampolli, ‘operated as an escort agency for wealthy clients.’

The article, which was also published online by the Mailonline/DailyMail.com website under the headline ‘Naked photoshoots, and troubling questions about visas that won’t go away: The VERY racy past of Donald Trump’s Slovenian wife’ did not intend to state or suggest that these allegations are true, nor did it intend to state or suggest that Mrs. Trump ever worked as an ‘escort’ or in the ‘sex business.’

To the contrary, The Daily Mail newspaper article stated that there was no support for the allegations, and it provided adamant denials from Mrs. Trump’s spokesperson and from Mr. Zampolli.

The point of the article was that these allegations could impact the U.S. presidential election even if they are untrue.

Mrs. Trump’s counsel in the U.S. and the U.K., have stated unequivocally that the allegations about the modeling agencies are false.

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,’ that she had a ‘composite or presentation card for the sex business,’ or that either of the modeling agencies referenced in the article were engaged in these businesses, it is hereby retracted, and the Daily Mail newspaper regrets any such misinterpretation.

The Daily Mail’s groveling is likely too little too late to prevent a huge monetary loss but the lawsuit should serve as a warning to the sleaze peddlers in the establishment media. There is so much dishonest information and slime being published on Trump himself that the GOP nominee could have plenty of ammo should he go on to lose the election and start filing his own lawsuits.

The lawsuit also named author and blogger Webster G. Tarpley, the author of a number of conspiracy themed books including 9/11: Synthetic Terror, George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography and Obama: The Postmodern Coup.

The one thing that the media fails to understand – or simply ignores – is that freedom of the press doesn’t extend to propaganda and hit pieces churned out by political operatives masquerading as journalists.