Trump’s nephew seeks money in fraud case, former president’s lawyer argues

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By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Donald Trump’s lawyer on Tuesday accused the former U.S. president’s nephew of trying to cash in on the family name by suing Trump and his siblings for allegedly cheating on him from in multimillion-dollar inheritance.

At a New York state court hearing in Manhattan, attorney James Kiley denied Mary Trump’s statement that he learned of the fraud through a Pulitzer Prize-winning 2018 New York Times investigation into Donald Trump’s finances, including his alleged efforts to avoid paying taxes.

Kiley said that in 2001 the settlement on the estate of Donald Trump’s father Fred Trump Sr. gave Mary Trump notice of potential claims against her uncles and aunts, and she waited too long to by not suing them until September 2020.

“She says the New York Times is like Rosetta Stone,” Kiley said in asking for dismissal in the lawsuit. “He gets all this information (in 2001). All he has to do is look at it.”

Kiley also accused Mary Trump, now a 56-year-old psychologist, of wanting a “round two” with her relatives because of the popularity of the case.

“Are we laughing at ourselves that if the name in this case isn’t Trump, this case won’t be taken?” he said. “Plaintiff seizes sensationalism and politics to bring a claim that should not have passed through the courtroom door.”

The case stemmed from the death of Mary’s father in 1981, Fred Trump Jr., Donald Trump’s older brother, who left 16-year-old Mary with a lucrative real estate portfolio.

Mary Trump claims https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-trump-mary-trump-lawsuit-idINKCN26F2RV that her uncles Donald and Robert Trump and aunt Maryanne Trump Barry should protect her interest but instead absorbed the money, and “squeezed” him through the 2001 settlement.

“Fraud is a secret thing,” said Mary Trump’s attorney John Quinn. “He doesn’t have the expertise and the resources that the Times has, and he doesn’t have any notice that there is fraud.”

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Quinn said the defendants were “very deficient” in specific demonstration otherwise, meaning the lawsuit must continue.

Defendants denied the fraud claims in Mary Trump’s lawsuit.

Justice Robert Reed, who is overseeing the case, did not say when he would preside.

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Mary Trump was also sued by Donald Trump, who accused her, the Times and three journalists in September of running a “fraudulent scheme” to exploit her tax records to fulfill personal revenge, advance the political agendas and make money.

Some of Mary Trump’s allegations about Donald Trump are in her best-selling 2020 tell-all, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.”

Gary Freidman, an attorney for Maryanne Trump Barry, tried at Tuesday’s hearing to turn the book against Mary Trump.

“He writes in his book,‘ we knew at the time we were lying, ’” Freidman said. “That suggests he had some roles at the time … that probably looked a little further and deeper, not wait 20 years.”

He also said the 2001 settlement gave defendants “broad, broad general release” from Mary Trump’s claims.

Maryanne Trump Barry is a retired federal judge. Robert Trump died in August 2020. Kiley also represented Robert Trump’s estate.

Donald Trump and his named Trump Organization also face a criminal investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, in which the state is joined by Attorney General Letitia James, and a related civil investigation by James.

Tax evasion is among the issues being investigated. Donald Trump has not been charged with criminal misconduct.

The cases are Mary L. Trump v Donald J. Trump et al, New York State Supreme Court, New York County, no. 654698/2020, and Donald J. Trump v Mary L. Trump et al in the same court, no. 453299/2021.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Howard Goller)

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