Mary Trump responded to her uncle, former President Donald Trump’s, lawsuit against her by stating that when family members disagree, they communicate by suing one another.
Ms Trump told BNC News that she has not spoken to anyone close to Mr Trump about the legal action.
“I think their way of communicating with people they disagree with is to sue them,” she said.
“And that’s exactly what they did.”
“My aunt and uncle sued me last year to first prevent the publication of my book and then to prevent my ability to speak about it. Not too long ago … I sued them because I believe they committed fraud against me after my dad died,” Ms Trump said.
As @MaryLTrump told me recently on my show #PRIMEwithCharlesBlow on @BNCNews, “I guess this is how the Trump family communicates when they’re not getting along: we trade lawsuits.” #MaryTrump #TrumpSues #TheNewYorkTimes #NYT https://t.co/tQtnLzYoP0 pic.twitter.com/ugXzvxFx2v
— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) September 22, 2021
Former President Trump filed a $100M lawsuit against his niece, Mary Trump, and the New York Times, claiming they conspired to obtain his tax returns for the paper’s Pulitzer-winning story on his undisclosed finances. https://t.co/j3h9NS3lqH
— NBC News (@NBCNews) September 22, 2021
“I guess this is how the Trump family communicates when they’re not getting along,” she told BNC News.
“We trade lawsuits. The difference being, I think mine has some merit.”
The former president filed his $100 million lawsuit against Ms Trump and The New York Times on Tuesday, alleging that they conspired to obtain his records for a newspaper storey about his undisclosed finances.
According to the lawsuit, Mary Trump conspired with Times reporters Susanne Craig, David Barstow, and Russell Buettner to obtain the information through a “insidious plot” and an “extensive crusade.”
“The defendants engaged in an insidious plot to obtain confidential and highly-sensitive records which they exploited for their own benefit and utilised as a means of falsely legitimizing their publicised works,” the lawsuit alleges.
The reporters won a Pulitzer Prize for their series of articles in 2019. Ms Trump, who is the daughter of Mr Trump’s brother Fred Jr, has stated in interviews and in her 2020 book that she gave the newspaper access to Mr Trump’s tax returns.
“I think he is a f***ing loser, and he is going to throw anything against the wall he can,” Ms Trump said in a statement.
“It’s desperation. The walls are closing in and he is throwing anything against the wall that he thinks will stick. As is always the case with Donald, he’ll try and change the subject.”
“The Times’ coverage of Donald Trump’s taxes helped inform citizens through meticulous reporting on a subject of overriding public interest,” New York Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha said. “This lawsuit is an attempt to silence independent news organizations and we plan to vigorously defend against it.”
The 27-page lawsuit claims that the paper “relentlessly sought out his niece … and convinced her to smuggle the records out of her attorney’s office and turn them over to The Times”.
“Craig, aware that the documents had been derived from the litigation proceedings of the Estate Actions, directed Mary Trump to retrieve the documents from the office of her prior attorney for the Estate Actions, Farrell Fritz, and to ‘smuggle’ them out,” the lawsuit adds.
According to the lawsuit, Ms Trump violated a confidentiality agreement that barred her from disclosing information about the family’s finances as part of a settlement with Fred Trump Sr’s estate.
The lawsuit also alleges that Ms Trump and The New York Times reporters were “motivated by a personal vendetta and their desire to gain fame, notoriety, acclaim and a financial windfall” and that they wanted to “advance their political agenda”.
Image Credit: Getty
