President Trump settled a $100 million lawsuit against his niece, Mary Trump, over his accusations that she leaked his confidential information to The New York Times for an investigation into his finances.
“The parties are pleased to report they have reached a settlement and anticipate being able to stipulate to the dismissal of this action with prejudice in the ensuing weeks,” attorneys for both wrote in a joint letter filed Tuesday with a New York state court in Manhattan.
A formal dismissal, which would be with prejudice, meaning Mr. Trump could not sue again, is expected in the coming weeks.
The president accused his niece of engaging “in an insidious plot” to leak confidential information to the outlet that led to its Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into his tax and financial records.
The 2018 probe reported that Mr. Trump’s father, Fred Trump Sr., gave his son at least $413 million through his real estate empire over the years, with the help of “dubious tax schemes during the 1990s.”
Mr. Trump sued his niece in 2021 alongside the NYT and three of its reporters, arguing they conspired to leak sensitive records and were “motivated by a personal vendetta.”
He said Ms. Trump’s leak was a “blatant breach” of a confidentiality agreement in a 2001 settlement over the estate of Mr. Trump’s father and Ms. Trump’s grandfather, as the reporters “convinced” her to “smuggle records out of her attorney’s office and turn them over to The Times.”
Ms. Trump’s lawyers dubbed the lawsuit “baseless.”
“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. His interpretation is unreasonable and has already been rejected by Dutchess County Supreme Court Justice Greenwald,” her lawyers wrote in court filings.
Ms. Trump, a clinical psychologist, identified herself as a source in her 2020 memoir, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” which Mr. Trump called “an ill-conceived effort to profit” off the leak.
A judge dismissed the president’s lawsuit against the newspaper and its reporters in 2023 and ordered Trump to pay almost $400,000 of their legal fees.
However, in 2024, a state appeals court found a “substantial” legal basis for Mr. Trump’s confidentiality claim against his niece, with “nominal” damages rather than the $100 million he sought.
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