Former US President Donald Trump must New York Times to reimburse around 400,000 US dollars (around 365,000 euros) in legal fees due to a failed lawsuit against the newspaper. According to media reports, a judge of the Supreme Court of the State of New York decided this on Friday. Trump, who would like to become US President again in the November election, must pay legal fees, court costs and expenses totaling almost $393,000.
The newspaper reported on Trump’s secret finances in 2018. Trump later failed in a lawsuit against the reporting. It said that Trump had not, as he portrayed, made a large fortune on his own, but rather had received hundreds of millions of US dollars from his father’s company over the years using dubious methods and tax evasion. The newspaper received the Pulitzer Prize for this reporting. Trump later sued her for $100 million.
Trump says his niece and the journalists are “involved in an insidious plot”
Judge Robert Reed dismissed Trump’s lawsuit against the New York Times but three of its journalists died last year. The Republican’s lawyers called the amount requested to reimburse legal fees “exorbitant, excessive and unreasonable.” Trump had sued the newspaper, his niece Mary Trump and others. He claimed that his niece and the journalists were “involved in an insidious plot” to “obtain confidential and highly sensitive documents.” They exploited this for their own advantage.
Reed rejected that claim in his ruling in May. He explained that Trump’s accusations against the New York Times are “constitutionally untenable”. Trump is maintaining the lawsuit against his niece. His lawyer said Friday that the former president would pursue claims against Mary Trump.
Trump’s niece Mary, who has long publicly criticized her uncle, revealed in a 2020 tell-all book that she had leaked tax documents to the newspaper. Since the end of his presidency, Trump has struggled on several fronts with legal problems or investigations that could have legal consequences for the 77-year-old.