President Donald Trump has agreed to a $100 million settlement to resolve his lawsuit against his niece, Mary Trump, whom he accused of conspiring with The New York Times to leak confidential tax information. The settlement was announced in a joint filing on Tuesday (June 16), though the specific terms remain undisclosed. A formal dismissal of the case is expected in the coming weeks.
President Trump initially filed the lawsuit in 2021, claiming that Mary Trump participated in an “insidious plot” with reporters to disclose his financial records. These records were part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation by The New York Times in 2018, which scrutinized Trump’s claims of being a self-made billionaire. According to the lawsuit, Mary Trump “smuggled” the records from her attorney’s office, violating a nondisclosure agreement related to a 2001 estate settlement of Donald Trump’s father, Fred Trump.
The lawsuit also targeted three New York Times journalists—Susanne Craig, David Barstow, and Russell Buettner—but those claims were dismissed by a state judge in 2023. The judge ruled that the newspaper’s investigation was protected under the First Amendment, and ordered Trump to pay nearly $400,000 in legal fees to the newspaper.
Mary Trump had attempted to halt the lawsuit after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, arguing that it would allow him to focus on his presidential duties. However, New York Supreme Court Justice Robert Reed allowed the case to proceed. The settlement follows claims by Mary Trump’s lawyers that President Trump was delaying his deposition to prolong the case.
The 2018 investigation by The New York Times revealed details about Trump’s financial dealings, including tax avoidance strategies and significant financial support from his father. Mary Trump later confirmed in her 2020 book, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” that she provided the tax documents to the newspaper.
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