Trump sued the niece, NY Times over the notes behind the ’18 tax story

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NEW YORK Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday accused his estranged nephew and The New York Times about a 2018 story about his family’s wealth and tax practices based partly on confidential documents provided he in newspaper articles.

The Trumps lawsuit, filed in state court in New York, accused Mary Trump of violating a settlement agreement by disclosing tax records she received in a dispute about the family patriarchy. and Fred Trumps estate.

The lawsuit accused the Times and three of its investigating reporters, Susanne Craig, David Barstow and Russell Buettner, of relentlessly looking for Mary Trump as a source of information and convincing her to turn over the documents. The suit claims that reporters were aware of the settlement agreement that prohibited him from disclosing documents.

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The Times story challenges Trump’s claims about his own wealth by documenting how his father Fred has given him at least $ 413 million over the past decades, including extortion schemes. tax avoidance.

Mary Trump identified herself in a book published last year as the source of documents provided to the Times.

The Trumps lawsuit accused Mary Trump, the Times and its reporters of inciting a personal revenge against her and a desire to push a political agenda.

Defendants engaged in a fraudulent plot to obtain confidential and highly sensitive records that they exploited for their own benefit and used as a means of falsely legitimizing their publicized works, the lawsuit said.

In a statement to NBC News, Mary Trump said about her uncle, I think he was defeated, and he would throw anything at the wall that he could. Its desperation. The walls are closing and he is throwing anything at the wall that he thinks will stay. As always happens with Donald, hell try to change the subject.

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Times spokesperson, Danielle Rhoads Ha, said the lawsuit was an attempt to silence independent news organizations and we plan to vigorously defend against it.

The Times coverage of Trump’s taxes, he said, has helped inform citizens through thorough reporting on a topic of excessive public interest.

One of the Times reporters, Craig, responded with a tweet: I knocked on Mary Trumps door. He opened it. I think they called that journalism.

Trump is demanding $ 100 million in damages.

Trump filed his lawsuit nearly a year to a day after Mary Trump sued him over allegations that he and his two brothers cheated him of millions of dollars over decades while squeezing him into the business of family.

That case is pending.

Mary Trump, 56, was the daughter of Donald Trumps brother, Fred Trump Jr., who died in 1981 at age 42. Mary Trump was 16 at the time.

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The Trumps lawsuit focuses solely on the Times 2018 story, a Pulitzer Prize winner for explanatory reporting. Not to mention another Times scoop on Trump’s taxes last year, which found he hasn’t paid federal income taxes in 10 of the past 15 years.

According to the lawsuit, Mary Trump possessed more than 40,000 pages of highly sensitive, proprietary, private and confidential documents through a legal lawsuit involving Fred Trump.

The documents include financial records, accountings, tax returns, bank statements, and legal papers relating to Donald Trump, Fred Trump and their businesses, Trumps’ lawsuit said.

In 2001, nearly two years after Fred Trump died, Mary Trump and other family members entered into a settlement agreement with confidential and non-disclosure clauses prohibiting them from sharing information. about Fred Trumps estate in, among other places, newspaper stories, Trumps lawsuits said. The agreement also covers the property of Freds’ wife Mary Anne Trump, who died in 2000.

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Trump, who repeatedly bashed the Times during his presidency as a failure of the New York Times, noted in the lawsuit that the 2018 article was viewed more online than any previous article in the Times and that the price New York Times Companys stock jumped 7.4% in this week’s run.

The Times story said Donald Trump and his father avoided gift and inheritance taxes through methods including setting up a sham corporation and undervaluing assets to tax authorities. The Times said its report was based on more than 100,000 pages of financial documents, including confidential tax returns from the father and his companies.

The book Mary Trumps, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, which debuted amid Donald Trumps re -election campaign last year. Donald Trumps brother, Robert, failed to have the court block the publication of the books, citing the 2001 settlement agreement.

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Holding in favor of Mary Trumps, a judge said the confidentiality clauses, viewed in the context of the current state of the Trump family in 2020, would hurt public policy as a preliminary restraint on protected speech.

In the book, Mary Trump recounts the provision of family financial records that have been subjected to Times reporting. The book sold more than 1.3 million copies in its first week and climbed to Number 1 on the Times bestseller list.

In an interview connected to the book’s release, Mary Trump told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that she didn’t feel the non -disclosure agreement was important in one way or another because what I had to say was too important.

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Follow Michael Sisak on Twitter at twitter.com/mikesisak

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