‘This is how the Trump family communicates’: Niece reacts as former president sues her

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Mary Trump reacted to the lawsuit against her from her uncle, former President Donald Trump, by saying that when the family disagrees, they communicate by suing each other.

Mr Trump filed a lawsuit against his niece last week, arguing that Ms Trump and The New York Times were “engaged in an insidious plot to obtain confidential and highly-sensitive records” concerning his finances.

Ms Trump told BNC News that no one close to Mr Trump has spoken to her 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.”

Ms Trump has previously been sued by her relatives to stop the publication of her 2020 book Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.

“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.

“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 $100m lawsuit on Tuesday against Ms Trump and The New York Times, claiming that they had worked together to get hold of his records for a story published in the paper on his undisclosed finances.

The suit claims that Mary Trump along with Times reporters Susanne Craig, David Barstow and Russell Buettner engaged in an “insidious plot” and an “extensive crusade” to acquire the information.

“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 received a Pulitzer prize in 2019 for their series of articles. Ms Trump, the daughter of Mr Trump’s brother Fred Jr, has said in interviews and in her 2020 book that she released Mr Trump’s tax returns to the paper.

“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.

The lawsuit claims that Ms Trump violated a confidentiality agreement that prohibited her from releasing details about the family’s finances according to a settlement of 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”.