Trump Admits in Suit Against His Niece that the NY Times Story on His Taxes — Which He Previously Called ‘Fake News’ — Was Real
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Donald Trump, by seeking $100 million in damages from Mary Trump and the New York Times, is admitting that the paper’s reporting on his taxes, which he previously called “fake news,” was actually real.
On Tuesday, Trump filed a lawsuit against his niece, as well as several New York Times journalists, for the disclosure of his tax information — but he had previously slammed the tax claims published in several of the paper’s articles as “fake news.”
In September 2020, the New York Times reported that Trump paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016, the year he was elected president. While Trump immediately dismissed the reporting as “fake news,” his recent filing of $100 million in damages suggests that the revelation is likely true.
“It’s totally fake news,” Trump said during a press conference when asked about the New York Times report. “Made up. Fake.”
Trump additionally dismissed a 2018 New York Times report on his taxes as a “very old, boring and often told hit piece,” while his lawyer Charles Harder said, “The New York Times allegations of fraud and tax evasion are 100 percent false, and highly defamatory,” according to the paper.
Trump is now suing his niece and the paper for disclosing “confidential and highly-sensitive records” — the same records he deemed “made up” and “totally fake news.”
“As a direct and proximate result of Mary Trump’s breaches of the Settlement Agreement, Plaintiff has sustained, and will continue to sustain, significant damages in an amount to be determined at trial, but believed to be no less than One Hundred Million Dollars ($100,000,000), in actual, compensatory and incidental damages, plus interests and the costs of this action,” states Trump’s lawsuit.
In the suit, Trump explained that when his mother Mary Anne Trump passed away, Mary Trump and her lawyer “came into possession of more than 40,000 pages of highly sensitive, proprietary, private and confidential documents, including, but not limited to, financial documents, accountings, tax records, income tax returns, bank statements, legal documents and other related documents pertaining to Plaintiff, Proponents, Fred Trump Sr. and their various businesses and endeavors.”
The suit labeled the collective documents as the “Confidential Records,” accusing Mary Trump of turning over the documents to the New York Times without Trump’s consent, which he claimed was a “clear and blatant violation of the Settlement Agreement.”
The lawsuit accused Mary Trump of retrieving the “Confidential Records” from her attorney’s office and turning them over to the New York Times.
“At no time did Plaintiff authorize or consent to Mary Trump’s release of the Confidential Records,” read the suit. “At no time did either of the other Proponents, Robert Trump and Maryanne Trump Barry, authorize or consent to Mary Trump’s release of the Confidential Records.”
By suing Mary Trump and the New York Times over obtaining and releasing the information in those “Confidential Records,” which included Trump’s tax records, income tax returns, and bank statements, the former president admitted that the report on his finances was not “fake news.”
