Trump files complaint against his niece and the New York Times

Former US President Donald Trump has filed a complaint against his niece, Mary Trump, and the New York Times, accusing them of "plotting a malicious conspiracy" to obtain his tax data and to publish a 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation.

The 27-page complaint filed in Duchess, New York, puts Trump at $100 million in damages, and accuses three New York Times journalists, Susan Craig, David Barstow and Russell Buetner, of launching a "widespread campaign to obtain Donald Trump's secret tax files."

The complaint states that the defendants, acting out of "personal revenge," hatched a "malicious plot to obtain confidential and highly sensitive documents which they exploited for their own benefit and used as a means to legitimize their published works."

The New York Times investigation, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2019, presented how the former real estate developer accumulated his fortune, stating that Donald Trump, who asserts that he built his empire alone, in fact received from his father over the years the equivalent of 413 million dollars currently, part of which was transferred to him from The way of a sham company to evade taxes.

At the time, Trump commented on the article, describing it as "accusatory" and describing its content as "boring" and "vulgar."

However, its publication prompted the New York State Tax Agency to open an investigation into the matter.

Mary Trump revealed that she is the main source for the New York Times investigation, in a book she published in 2020 called "Too Much and Never Enough" (Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man).

Trump's complaint states that reporters "relentlessly pursued his niece, Mary L. Trump, and persuaded her to take the files out of her attorney's office and turn them over to the New York Times."

The complaint alleges that Mary Trump violated a non-disclosure agreement she signed in 2001 after settling the estate of her grandfather, Fred Trump Senior.

However, Mary Trump commented on the complaint, describing her uncle as a "loser," in a statement reported by NBC.

"It's despair," she added. "The walls are closing in on him and he's floundering."

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