New Delhi: Former US President Donald Trump has been directed to pay approximately $400,000 in legal fees to The New York Times and three investigative journalists on January 12 in connection with a lawsuit concerning a Pulitzer Prize-winning article. The Pulitzer Prize was awarded to The New York Times and reporters Susanne Craig, David Barstow, and Russell Buettner for their 2018 story on Donald Trump’s family finances and tax practices. In 2021, Trump filed a lawsuit related to this story. Still, it was dismissed in May, with Trump accusing his estranged niece, Mary Trump, of violating the settlement agreement by providing tax records to the reporters. The lawsuit against Mary Trump is still pending.
Trump argued that the reporters were aware of the settlement agreement with Mary Trump, which prohibited her from disclosing the documents she received during a dispute over Fred Trump’s estate. The 2018 story alleged that Donald Trump and his father evaded gift and inheritance taxes through tactics such as undervaluing assets and creating a fake corporation. The report claimed to be based on over 100,000 pages of financial documents, including confidential tax returns.
New York Judge Robert Reed justified the order for Trump to pay $392,638 in legal fees to the Times and the reporters, citing the complexity of the case and other factors. The judge’s decision was seen as a validation of the state’s anti-SLAPP statute, which aims to deter baseless lawsuits designed to silence critics. Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoads Ha remarked that the ruling demonstrates the effectiveness of New York’s anti-SLAPP statute in safeguarding press freedom.
