New York — Following his unsuccessful lawsuit against The New York Times and three investigative reporters over a Pulitzer Prize-winning 2018 piece exposing his family's wealth and tax procedures, former President Donald Trump was forced to pay over $400,000 in legal costs on Friday.
May saw the newspaper and reporters Susanne Craig, David Barstow, and Russell Buettner fired from the case. Mary Trump, Trump's estranged niece, is still being sued for breaching a settlement agreement by releasing reporters tax data. New York Judge Robert Reed ruled that Donald Trump should pay the Times and reporters $392,638 in legal expenses due to the “complexity of the issues” and other considerations.
Today’s decision shows that the state’s newly amended anti-SLAPP statute can be a powerful force for protecting press freedom,” Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoads Ha said. These are SLAPPs, or strategic litigation against public engagement.
The court has sent a message to those who want to use the courts to silence journalists," Rhoads Ha remarked. Reed rejected Mary Trump, the single defendant, a request to put the case on hold while she appeals his June judgment that authorized Donald Trump's claim against her.
Alina Habba, Donald Trump's lawyer, was unhappy the Times and its reporters were dismissed from the lawsuit. She said they are glad the court “once again affirmed the strength of our claims against Mary and is denying her attempt to avoid accountability.”
Donald Trump's 2021 lawsuit claimed the Times and its reporters of constantly pursuing Mary Trump's information and persuaded her to reveal sensitive tax documents. He said media knew her settlement agreement prevented her from publishing the documents she acquired in a dispute over Fred Trump's estate.
The Times showed how Fred Trump gave Donald Trump at least $413 million over the decades, including through tax evasion tactics, undermining his claims of self-made fortune. Mary Trump revealed herself as the document source in a 2020 book.
The Times said that Donald Trump and his father evaded gift and inheritance taxes by creating a phony organization and undervaluing assets. The Times used almost 100,000 pages of financial papers, including secret tax filings for the father and his enterprises, to report.
Donald Trump claimed Mary Trump, the Times, and the reporters “were motivated by a personal vendetta” against him and wanted $100 million in damages. He accused them of “insidious plot to obtain confidential and highly sensitive records which they exploited for their own benefit.
In removing the Times and its writers from the case, Reed wrote that legal news gathering is “at the very core of protected First Amendment activity.” Mary Trump, 58, is the daughter of Fred Trump Jr., who died at 42 in 1981. She harshly criticizes her uncle as “criminal, cruel and traitorous.
Mary Trump filed a complaint against Donald Trump under New York's anti-SLAPP legislation in July, claiming his case was “purely retaliatory and lacking in merit” and meant to “chill her and others from criticizing him in the future”.