The lawsuit quickly reignited fears among some outside legal experts that the Justice Department was training its resources at the White House’s perceived enemies.

“This is a complete abuse of the Justice Department’s finite resources to bring a personal lawsuit on behalf of the First Lady against a former advisor,” said Brad Moss, a national security attorney. “The case law has been expressly clear for decades that former officials cannot be contractually censored for anything other than classified information, and no amount of legal hairsplitting over Wolkoff’s ‘status’ as a volunteer is going to change that.”

The lawsuit is the latest move by the Justice Department to intervene in disputes between the Trumps and their former aides, such as ex-national security adviser John Bolton, who is fighting a lawsuit that claims he disclosed classified information in his explosive tell-all, “The Room Where it Happened.”