From left: Donald and Mary Trump.Photo: D Dipasupil/Getty Images; Peter Serling/Mary L. Trump Twitter
Former PresidentDonald Trumpis suing his niece,Mary Trump,The New York Timesand three of the paper’s journalists as he claims a 2018 prize-winning investigation about his tax dealings was the result of an “insidious plot,” court documents show.
TheTimes,in response, called Trump’s complaint “an attempt to silence independent news organizations and we plan to vigorously defend against it.”
At the time, Trump’s attorney said “allegations of fraud and tax evasion are 100 percent false.”
TheTimesjournalists named in Trump’s new suit are Susanne Craig, David Barstow and Russell Buettner, who co-wrotethe bombshell investigative report, headlined “Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father.”
Their workearned a Pulitzer Prizefor “a distinguished example of explanatory reporting” in 2019.
But Trump’s lawsuit casts that reporting differently.
Robert Alexander/Getty Images
The suit cites a 2001 settlement regarding the estate of family patriarch Fred Trump Sr., in which all parties, including Mary, agreed to its terms of confidentiality and non-disclosure.
The former president, 75, argues that settlement from 2001 “plainly states” that those involved in the agreement “shall not disclose any of the terms of [the Settlement Agreement], and in addition shall not directly or indirectly publish or cause to be published, any diary, memoir, letter, story, photograph, interview, article, essay, account, or description or depiction of any kind whatsoever.”
The confidentiality has been litigated already.
“President Trump and his siblings are seeking to suppress a book that will discuss matters of utmost public importance,” attorney Theodore Boutros Jr., who represented Mary Trump, said. “They are pursuing this unlawful prior restraint because they do not want the American people to know the truth,” Boutros continued. “The courts will not tolerate this brazen effort to squelch speech in violation of the First Amendment.”
A judge agreed, ruling in July 2020 that the 2001 settlement agreement’s confidentiality provision was too vaguely defined and likely related to specific financial details; and that it could not apply to Mary’s decision, all these years later, to speak out about the president.
Her book was soon released.
Mary Trump.MSNBC
The new lawsuit claims that theTimesjournalists engaged in an “extensive crusade to obtain Donald J. Trump’s confidential tax records, relentlessly sought out his niece, Mary L. Trump, and convinced her to smuggle the records out of her attorney’s office and turn them over to The Times.”
In response to the lawsuit, theTimesreleased a statementon Tuesday: “TheTimes’s coverage of Donald Trump’s taxes helped inform the public through meticulous reporting on a subject of overriding public interest. This lawsuit is an attempt to silence independent news organizations and we plan to vigorously defend against it.”
Susanne Craig, one of the reporters named, reacted to the claims of nefariousness on Twitter,writing, “I knocked on Mary Trump’s door. She opened it. I think they call that journalism.”
Trump’s attorney contended to PEOPLE that “this lawsuit is in no way an effort to limit free speech or silence the media.”
President Donald Trump.D Dipasupil/Getty Images
Mary — whohas sued her relativesover her own allegations related to the family’s money — likewisegave a statement to NBC News, saying of her uncle, “I think he is a loser, and he is going to throw anything against the wall he can. It’s desperation.”
“The walls are closing in and he is throwing anything against the wall that he thinks will stick,” Mary said. “As is always the case with Donald, he’ll try and change the subject.”
source: people.com
