Former President Donald Trump appears before a group of conservatives in Dallas, Texas.LM Otero / AP
Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Tuesday against his 56-year-old niece Mary Trump and
The New York Times
for exposing his tax information. Mary Trump gave tens of thousands of documents about the Republican's family finances to three newspaper reporters for an investigation that revealed in 2018 how the Republican made his fortune based on fraud and tax evasion. The former president of the United States accuses his niece of having violated a confidentiality agreement signed by the family after the death of his father, Fred Trump. The New York mogul seeks compensation for damages in excess of $ 100 million.
Times
investigative journalists
Susanne Craig, David Barstow and Russ Buettner "convinced" Mary Trump to "smuggle" 40,000 confidential documents from her attorneys' office and deliver them to her, the lawsuit describes.
“I knocked on Mary Trump's door.
She opened it, ”Craig tweeted Wednesday.
"I think they call that journalism," he said.
"The actions of Mary Trump and the
Times
defendants
were motivated, at least in part, by their actual malice toward the plaintiff," the complaint reads.
More information
Trump paid $ 750 in taxes in 2016 and 2017, according to 'The New York Times'
The editor of 'The New York Times' ugly Trump who calls his newspaper "enemy of the people"
After 18 months of investigation, the journalists discovered that the ex-president received 413 million dollars from his father throughout his life thanks to dubious tax schemes and fraud. The article earned them a Pulitzer Prize in the explanatory reporting category. When it came to light, Trump called it "boring" and his attorney, Charles Harder, claimed that the allegations of fraud and tax evasion were "100% false and highly defamatory."
A
Times
spokesperson
argued in a statement that the newspaper's coverage of Trump's taxes helped inform citizens through "thoughtful articles" on "an issue of overriding public concern." "This lawsuit is an attempt to silence independent news organizations and we plan to vigorously defend ourselves against it," he said. Trump did not want to make his tax return public during the 2016 or 2020 presidential campaigns, breaking with a tradition that all candidates in modern history have followed.
Mary Trump, a doctor in clinical psychology, published in mid-2020 the book
Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the Most Dangerous Man in the World
.
In the letter, the daughter of the younger brother of the then US president acknowledged that in 2017 she gave 19 boxes of documents to
Times
journalists
for their investigation into Trump's finances.
These were "highly sensitive, proprietary, private and confidential documents," the lawsuit maintains, from a legal case related to Fred Trump's will, including financial records, tax returns, bank statements.
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The Republican's niece and her brother signed a confidentiality agreement in 2001 after reaching an agreement on the distribution of Fred Trump's will.
They both received an undisclosed amount.
Mary Trump responded to the lawsuit by assuring that her uncle “is a loser, and he is going to throw everything he can against the wall.
It's desperation, "he said in a statement.
The lawsuit ignores the
Times
exclusive
that found Trump failed to pay federal income taxes in 10 of the previous 15 years.
And that in 2016 and 2017 it only disbursed $ 750, respectively.
In a statement released by Trump on Wednesday, quoted by
The Washington Post
, the Republican threatened that more lawsuits would come "even about other people and the fake news media."
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