Trump Sues New York Times And Niece Mary, Alleging ‘Insidious Plot’ To Obtain His Tax Records
Here's his breaking news report yesterday Updated Sep 22, 2021, 06:53am EDT
Forbes | 2021-09-22
Topline
"Former president Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against the New York Times, three of its reporters and his niece Mary on Tuesday, accusing them of hatching an “insidious plot” to obtain “confidential and highly-sensitive records” for a 2018 investigative report published by the paper which detailed allegations that Trump had “participated in dubious tax schemes.”
Key Facts
The suit, filed in Dutchess County, New York alleges that the New York Times convinced Mary Trump to smuggle records out of her attorney’s office and turn them over to the newspaper.
According to the suit, Mary Trump carried out these alleged actions despite having signed a confidentiality agreement in 2001 as part of a settlement to a legal dispute around the will of Frederick Trump, the former president’s father and Mary’s grandfather.
Trump is seeking at least $100 million in damages from both his niece and the Times.
Reacting to the suit Mary Trump told the Daily Beast that her uncle was a “fucking loser,” adding: “The walls are closing in and he is throwing anything against the wall that will stick.”
In a statement, the Times said its coverage of Trump’s taxes helped inform citizens on a “subject of overriding public interest” and the suit was “an attempt to silence independent news organizations.”
Crucial Quote
In response to the lawsuit, Times reporter Susanne Craig, one of the three journalists being sued, wrote on Twitter: “I knocked on Mary Trump’s door. She opened it. I think they call that journalism.”
Tangent
Dutchess County court last year ruled in favor of Mary Trump in a lawsuit filed against her by the former president’s brother Robert. That suit attempted to stop the release of Mary’s book Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, but the judge ruled that the 2001 confidentiality agreement was too vaguely defined to stop her from writing about the then-sitting president.
Key Background
In 2018, the New York Times published an article detailing allegations that the former president “participated in dubious tax schemes … including instances of outright fraud” that allowed him to obtain over $413 million from his father Fred Trump Sr. This pushed back against Trump’s electoral narrative that he was a self-made billionaire and he has long insisted that his father provided him almost no financial help.
Trump immediately dismissed the article on his now-defunct Twitter account calling it a “very old, boring and often told hit piece.”
The Times and the three reporters named in the suit—David Barstow, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner—won a Pulitzer Prize in 2019 for their work on the investigative report.
In her 2020 book, Mary Trump disclosed how she helped the Times reporters obtain the records. She wrote that in 2017, she took 19 boxes of documents from Farrell Fritz, the law firm that helped her challenge the estate of Fred Trump Sr., and handed them over to the journalists. She noted that a lawyer at the firm told her she was entitled to take the documents, as long as a copy of the same was left behind."
Further Reading
Trump Sues NYT and Niece—Who Calls Him ‘F*cking Loser’ (The Daily Beast)
Trump files lawsuit against the New York Times and niece over 2018 tax records story (Washington Post)
Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father (New York Times)
I am a Breaking News Reporter at Forbes, with a focus on covering important tech policy and business news. Graduated from Columbia University with an MA in Business and
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