Former President Donald Trump is suing his niece, along with the New York Times, over a 2018 story on his tax records.
The Daily Beast reports that Trump has filed a lawsuit in which he accuses Mary Trump, the New York Times and three of its reporters of being “engaged in an insidious plot” to obtain confidential documents. The suit alleges that Mary Trump was convinced by the news organization to “smuggle records out of her attorney’s office and turn them over to The Times’ despite her having signed a confidentiality agreement”
“Ms. Trump committed a material breach of the Settlement Agreement by disclosing, assisting and/or providing confidential information to The Times,” the lawsuit reads.
Trump is seeking $100 million in damages.
Trump’s niece claims the lawsuit is a sign of desperation: “The walls are closing in and he is throwing anything against the wall that will stick,” she told the Daily Beast. “As is always the case with Donald, he’ll try and change the subject.”
A spokesperson for the New York Times said the paper plans on “vigorously” fighting the suit.
“The Times’s coverage of Donald Trump’s taxes helped inform citizens through meticulous reporting on a subject of overriding public interest,” they said in a statement. “This lawsuit is an attempt to silence independent news organizations and we plan to vigorously defend against it.”
In late 2018, the Times published a lengthy article that said Trump participated in “dubious tax schemes during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud, that greatly increased the fortune he received from his parents.”
The article went on to win the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for its extensive reporting on the Trump family’s tax history.
