Former President Donald Trump has been ordered to pay the New York Times nearly $400,000 for filing a “frivolous” lawsuit against the newspaper for its award-winning reporting on his family’s tax practices.
The lawsuit against the newspaper and journalists Susanne Craig, David Barstow and Russell Buettner was dismissed in May after a judge ruled their 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning stories were protected by the First Amendment.
“Today’s decision shows that the state’s newly amended anti-SLAPP statute can be a powerful force to protect press freedom,” said Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha, referring to New York’s law that bars frivolous lawsuits designed to silence the critics.
“The court has sent a message to those who want to abuse the judicial system to try to silence journalists,” said Rhoades Ha.
Donald Trump was ordered on Friday to pay $400,000 in legal fees to the New York Times. POOL/AFP via Getty Images
New York Judge Robert Reed said that given the “complexity of the issues” in the case and other factors, it was reasonable that Trump had to pay lawyers for the Times and reporters a total of $392,638 in legal fees.
Trump, 77, filed the suit in 2021, accusing the Times and his niece Mary Trump of a “malicious conspiracy” to smuggle more than 100,000 pages of confidential financial documents from family lawyers to explore in their news articles and books.
A 2018 story challenged his claims of self-made wealth by documenting how his father, Fred Trump, had given him at least $413 million over the decades, including through tax avoidance schemes.
Trump would later evade taxes himself throughout his career by setting up fake companies to disguise financial gifts and by understating assets to tax authorities, the report stated.
Newspapers and reporters Susanne Craig, David Barstow and Russell Buettner were dismissed from the lawsuit in May. AP The Times reports challenging Donald Trump’s claims of self-made wealth by documenting how his father, Fred Trump, has given him at least $413 million over decades. John Nacion/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Shortly after losing the 2020 election, the former president claimed his nephew and the Times were motivated “by personal vendettas and their desire for fame, notoriety, praise and financial windfall and to advance their political agenda. “
One of the reporters, Craig, in a Friday tweet celebrating the final victory over “the frivolous charges he brought against the newspaper, my two colleagues and me.”
A lawsuit against the newspaper was dismissed in May, but Trump’s claim that Mary Trump – an outspoken critic of her uncle – violated a previous settlement agreement by providing tax records to reporters is still pending.
In a separate ruling Friday, Reed denied Mary Trump’s request to delay the case while she appeals a June ruling that allowed Trump’s lawsuit against her to proceed.
He filed a counterclaim against Trump in July under New York’s anti-SLAPP law, arguing that Donald Trump’s lawsuit was “purely vindictive and without merit” and aimed to “chill him and others from criticizing him on future.”
The former president’s lawyer, Alina Habba, said Trump and his team remained disappointed that the Times and its reporters were dropped from the lawsuit, but said they were pleased that the court had “once again confirmed the strength of our claim against Mary and denied her attempt to avoid accountability.”
“We hope to pursue our claim against him,” Habba said.
By Postal Wire
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
