Donald Trump on Tuesday sued his niece Mary Trump, the New York Times, and three Times reporters over the paper’s articles exposing years of apparent tax evasion schemes.
In the lawsuit, filed in Dutchess County, New York, Trump accuses Mary Trump and the Times of engaging in an “insidious plot” to “smuggle records out of her attorney’s office.” The lawsuit names Mary Trump, the New York Times, and reporters Susanne Craig, David Barstow and Russell Beuttner as defendants. It also names 10 John Does, and 10 ABC Corporations.
The filing, a copy of which was acquired by TheWrap, says that effort was a violation of a 2001 confidentiality agreement signed by Mary Trump; Trump is seeking “an amount to be determined at trial, but believed to be no less than One Hundred Million Dollars” from all parties named in the lawsuit.
“For too long, news organizations and individuals have targeted President Trump with impunity,” Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, said in a statement provided to TheWrap. “Mary Trump and The New York Times disregarded contractual and court ordered restrictions in a fervent desire to shamelessly profit through a series of intentionally deceptive and unlawful acts and statements. There has been a continued reckless indifference for his rights as a private citizen which will no longer go unnoticed. This Complaint marks the first of many cases which will seek to hold such individuals and entities accountable.”
Donald Trump’s brother Robert Trump had attempted to sue Mary Trump to stop publication of her 2020 book “Too Much and Never Enough,” citing that agreement. A judge killed that lawsuit on grounds the agreement was too vaguely written and that the book’s publisher never agreed to it; Robert Trump died in 2020.
Donald Trump’s new lawsuit cites as evidence an interview Mary Trump have to The Daily Beast in which she explained that it took convincing by Times reporter Susanne Craig before she decided to provide the documents. “I think he is a f—ing 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 will stick. As is always the case with Donald, he’ll try and change the subject,” Mary Trump told The Daily Beast.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.