(ConservativeJournal.org) – A New York judge has ordered former President Donald Trump to pay $400,000 as legal fees to The New York Times, covering costs from the now-dismissed lawsuit Trump filed against the paper and three of its journalists, and his niece.
In 2018, New York Times reporters David Barstow, Susanne Craig, and Russell Buettner investigated Trump’s wealth and taxes, revealing info from undisclosed tax filings that Trump had declined to make public at the time because of an audit.
Trump filed the lawsuit in 2021, saying that The New York Times conspired with Mary Trump, his estranged niece, to obtain and publish his tax records. Judge Robert Reed dismissed the lawsuit in May 2023.
In a recent ruling, Reed said that $392,600 is the exact amount Trump would have to cover for the legal services given during the trial, considering how complex the case was and the number of attorneys involved. Although the filings against Mary Trump was permitted to proceed, her plea for reimbursement of legal fees was denied in June.
According to a spokesperson from the NYT, the statute discourages defamation cases that have no evidence and sends a message against misuse of the legal system to silence journalists.
Trump’s $100 million lawsuit contended that the reporters were aware of a settlement which did not allow Mary Trump from revealing specific documents. He accused the NYT of an “insidious plot” by the paper and reporters to unlawfully acquire copies of his tax records from his niece.
No immediate response was provided by Alina Habba, Trump’s attorney in the case. Last year, when the lawsuit was dismissed, Habba emphasized the accountability of journalists for lying and defamation, stating that The New York Times and its reporters had exceeded the bounds of the first amendment by looking deeply into Trump’s financials.
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