Trump Suit Against Niece Can Continue

Donald Trump can proceed with a lawsuit against his niece Mary Trump for providing information to the New York Times for its 2018 report on his taxes, a judge ruled.

Bloomberg reports New York state court Justice Robert Reed on Friday rejected Mary Trump’s argument that the former president’s lawsuit violated a state law against frivolous litigation “aimed at chilling freedom of speech and the press.” 

The ruling is a modest procedural victory for Trump on an otherwise rough day in which he became the first-ever ex-president indicted for federal crimes.

Reed earlier dismissed Trump’s claims against the New York Times and ordered the former president to pay the newspaper’s legal fees and costs, saying the award-winning story was protected by the First Amendment.

Donald Trump claims that, by acting as a source for the newspaper, Mary Trump violated confidentiality provisions of a 2001 settlement that resolved an estate dispute over the family property business. 

Mary Trump

In Friday’s ruling, Reed said Trump can advance with a breach-of-contract claim against his niece, while dismissing allegations of unjust enrichment and bad-faith conduct. 

A psychologist and the daughter of the former president’s deceased older brother, Mary Trump has emerged as a fierce critic of her uncle. She wrote her 2020 book, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” with the goal of helping to stop his reelection. 

In the book, she described providing documents to the Times for its 2018 report detailing how Donald Trump used low property valuations to minimize his tax liability. The report, which won the Pulitzer Prize, also revealed that he inherited more than $400 million from his father, contrary to Trump’s frequent assertion that he only received a small loan of around $1 million.