Judge Dismisses Trump Lawsuit Against The New York Times

May 05, 2023

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by Elizabeth Nolan Brown Reason.com

A judge has dismissed former President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against The New York Times. Trump sued the paper after it published a 2018 story on Trump family business dealings and Trump’s “dubious tax schemes during the 1990s.” Trump’s lawsuit, filed in 2021, accused the paper and three of its reporters of conspiring with his niece, Mary Trump, to get his tax records through illegal means. He sought $100 million in damages.

“The crux of [Trump’s] claim is that a reporter for The Times caused his niece, Mary Trump, to take 20-year-old tax and financial documents held by her lawyer and disclose them in violation of a 2001 settlement agreement,” noted Justice Robert R. Reed of Manhattan’s Supreme Court. (In New York, there are 62 supreme courts—one for each county—while the highest court is called the Court of Appeals.)