Donald Trump is suing his niece, The New York Times, and three reporters over an 18-month investigation into his finances.
New York Times reporters David Barstow, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner spearheaded the investigation with the help of Mary Trump.
Trump’s suit claims that the trio “engaged in an insidious plot” to obtain “confidential tax records” made possible after the paper allegedly convinced Mary Trump to smuggle the former president’s tax and financial records out of her attorney’s office.
Per The Hill:
The reporting revealed, among other findings, that Donald Trump made the equivalent today of at least $413 million from his father’s real estate empire, with the help of efforts to dodge taxes.
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Donald Trump noted in his lawsuit that while his niece had signed a confidentiality agreement in 2001, she was “convinced” by Times journalists “to smuggle the records out of her attorney’s office and turn them over to The Times.”
The lawsuit also argues that the Times capitalized on the receipts by publishing “various news articles” that won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting. It adds that Mary Trump participated in “an ill-conceived effort to profit from these same events” through the publication of her memoir “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.”
A judge in 2020 ruled in a legal effort to try to stop Mary Trump and publisher Simon & Schuster from releasing the book that the 2001 confidentiality agreement she signed along with other family members had been too vaguely defined and that the book’s publisher was not a signatory to the agreement and could, therefore, not be forced to comply.
Nevertheless, Donald Trump argued in his Tuesday suit that his niece “committed a material breach of the Settlement Agreement by disclosing, assisting and/or providing confidential information to The Times.”
Trump’s suit is seeking “no less than One Hundred Million Dollars” from the defendants. Asked for comment, Mary called her uncle “a f—— loser” and that he’s “throwing anything against the wall that will stick.”
Danielle Rhoades Ha, VP of Communications for The New York Times, responded on behalf of the paper, “The Times’s coverage of Donald Trump’s taxes helped inform citizens through meticulous reporting on a subject of overriding public interest.” Ha continued, “This lawsuit is an attempt to silence independent news organizations and we plan to vigorously defend against it.”
This story is developing. Stay with American Liberty News for the latest updates.
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