What's Really Going On With Donald Trump's Lawsuit Against Mary Trump?

In September, Donald Trump sued niece Mary Trump and The New York Times over a 2018 investigation the newspaper ran regarding the former president's alleged involvement in tax schemes, The Washington Post reported. Donald is seeking $100 million in damages, per CNN. Mary confirmed in her tell-all book, "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man," that she served as a source for the three Times journalists who won a Pulitzer Prize the following year for their investigation, according to The Washington Post.

In his filing, Donald contended that Mary and the reporters committed "breach of contract" for revealing information that he says was protected by a confidentiality agreement. (In 2020, Trump's brother, Robert Trump, unsuccessfully used this NDA to attempt to prevent their niece — daughter of their late brother Fred — from publishing her book, according to The Guardian.)

Representatives for Mary said they would fight the suit. "It is doomed to failure like the rest of his baseless efforts to chill freedom of speech and of the press," her attorney, Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., told The Washington Post. Now, Mary herself is responding to the lawsuit.

On December 2, Mary Trump filed a motion in New York to dismiss the lawsuit. According to Bloomberg, she argued that the suit violates a state law that protects citizens from being subjected to "frivolous litigation." The motion asks the judge to dismiss the case "with prejudice," which means it would be dismissed permanently, The Hill noted. Her lawyer, Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., echoed these statements, per the New York Post. "This baseless case should be dismissed because it is a frivolous attempt to punish Mary Trump and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists for publishing truthful information of great public concern about former President Trump," he declared.

Boutrous downplayed Donald's argument that the information Mary gave the New York Times' reporters was protected under the 2001 non-disclosure agreement. "Mr. Trump wields the confidentiality provision as if it were virtually unlimited in scope and time, precluding speech on issues that became of central public concern once he first ran for President of the United States," he said (via Bloomberg). 

In her book (via The Guardian), Mary detailed how she initially declined to collaborate with the Times journalists but later acquiesced when one of them convinced her she had a unique opportunity to "rewrite the history of the president of the United States." Mary disclosed that she handed over "19 boxes" of information regarding Donald and the family's finances. Mary also suggested Donald's sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, might have helped her gather information.