Former US president Donald Trump is suing The New York Times and his niece, Mary, for an article detailing his taxes and finances, which he claims violates a non-disclosure agreement.
In total, the former president demands $100 million minimum in damages.
"The brazenness of the defendants’ actions cannot be understated," Trump attorney Alina Habba wrote in the 27-page complaint filed in Dutchess County.
"A group of journalists with the New York Times, in the middle of an extensive crusade to obtain Donald J. Trump’s confidential tax records, relentlessly sought out his niece, Mary L. Trump, and convinced her to smuggle the records out of her attorney’s office and turn them over to the Times. All the while, the parties knew full well that their actions were wrongful, as evidenced by their insistence on communicating through 'burner' phones and the Times initial claims that the records were obtained from an anonymous source. The Times attempted to capitalize on their receipt of the confidential record through their publication of various news articles; Mary L. Trump eventually followed suit and, in an ill-conceived effort to profit from these same events, published a book revealing her as the source of the unauthorized disclosure and providing a detailed account of the defendants’ wrongful conduct."
The New York Times has extensively reported on Trump's finances and taxes, which earned them the Pulitzer Prize in 2019.
Speaking to The New York Post, New York Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha vowed to fight the lawsuit.
“The Times’s coverage of Donald Trump’s taxes helped inform citizens through meticulous reporting on a subject of overriding public interest,” she told The New York Post.
“This lawsuit is an attempt to silence independent news organizations and we plan to vigorously defend against it.”
Speaking to the Daily Beast, Mary Trump slammed the suit as metaphorically grasping at straws.
“I think he is a f**king loser, and he is going to throw anything against the wall he can,” she told the Daily Beast. “It’s desperation. The walls are closing in and he is throwing anything against the wall that will stick. As is always the case with Donald, he’ll try and change the subject.”