Former President Donald Trump was ordered to pay the New York Times nearly $400,000 for bringing a “frivolous” lawsuit against the paper for its award-winning report on his family’s sketchy tax practices.
The lawsuit against the newspaper and reporters Susanne Craig, David Barstow and Russell Buettner was dismissed in May after a judge ruled their Pulitzer Prize-winning 2018 story was protected by the First Amendment.
“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 Rhoades Ha said, referring to a New York law that bars baseless lawsuits designed to silence critics.
“The court has sent a message to those who want to misuse the judicial system to try to silence journalists,” Rhoades Ha said.
Donald Trump was ordered Friday to pay $400,000 in legal fees to the New York Times. POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesNew York Judge Robert Reed said that given the “complexity of the issues” in the case and other factors, it was reasonable that Trump be forced to pay lawyers for the Times and the reporters a total of $392,638 in legal fees.
Trump, 77, filed the suit in 2021, accusing the Times and his estranged niece Mary Trump of conspiring an “insidious plot” to smuggle more than 100,000 pages of confidential financial documents from the family attorney for exploration in their news articles and a book.
The 2018 story challenged his claims of self-made wealth by documenting how his father, Fred Trump, had given him at least $413 million over the decades, including through tax avoidance schemes.
Trump would then go on to dodge taxes on his own throughout his career by setting up sham corporations to disguise monetary gifts and by undervaluing assets to tax authorities, the report stated.
The newspaper and reporters Susanne Craig, David Barstow and Russell Buettner were dismissed from the lawsuit in May. AP
The Times’ reporting challenged Donald Trump’s claims of self-made wealth by documenting how his father, Fred Trump, had given him at least $413 million over the decades. John Nacion/NurPhoto/ShutterstockHot off the heels of losing the 2020 election, the former president claimed his niece and the Times were motivated “by a personal vendetta and their desire to gain fame, notoriety, acclaim and a financial windfall and were further intended to advance their political agenda.”
One of the reporters, Craig, in a Friday tweet celebrated the final victory against the “frivolous lawsuit he brought against the paper, two of my colleagues and me.”
The suit against the newspaper was dismissed in May, but Trump’s claim that Mary Trump — an outspoken critic of her uncle — breached a prior settlement agreement by giving tax records to the reporters is still pending.
In a separate ruling Friday, Reed denied a request by Mary Trump to put the case on hold while she appeals his June decision that allowed Trump’s claim against her to proceed.
She filed a counterclaim against Trump in July under New York’s anti-SLAPP law, arguing that Donald Trump’s lawsuit was “purely retaliatory and lacking in merit” and intended to “chill her and others from criticizing him in the future.”
The former president’s lawyer, Alina Habba, said Trump and his team remain disappointed that the Times and its reporters were dropped from the lawsuit, but said they are pleased that the court has “once again affirmed the strength of our claims against Mary and is denying her attempt to avoid accountability.”
“We look forward to proceeding with our claims against her,” Habba said.
With Post Wires
