U.S. President Donald Trump and his niece, Mary Trump, have resolved the litigation in which he accused her of leaking tax-related information to the New York Times for its 2018 investigation into his finances and tax practices. Both parties informed a New York state court in Manhattan of the settlement in a letter filed on Tuesday, and indicated they will move to secure a formal dismissal in the near future.
The filing did not disclose any details of the agreement. The parties stated that the anticipated dismissal will be with prejudice, which would prevent Mr. Trump from bringing the same claims again.
Requests for comment did not immediately produce responses from the lawyers representing either Donald Trump or Mary Trump. The White House directed inquiries to the president's legal team.
Mr. Trump commenced the suit in 2021, accusing his niece of participating in what he described as an "insidious plot" with the New York Times to capitalize on his tax records for financial gain, political objectives and personal vendettas. Central to his claim was an allegation that Mary Trump breached confidentiality provisions in a 2001 settlement tied to the estate of Fred Trump Sr. Fred Trump Sr. was Donald Trump’s father and Mary Trump’s grandfather; he died in 1999.
Mary Trump, a psychologist, publicly identified herself as a source for the Times in her 2020 memoir, "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man."
Legal developments prior to the settlement had produced mixed results for the parties. In May 2024, a New York state appeals court found there was a "substantial" legal basis for Mr. Trump’s confidentiality claim, while noting that he might be entitled only to nominal damages rather than the $100 million he originally sought.
Counsel for Mary Trump countered that the lawsuit ran afoul of a New York statute that bars baseless cases brought to silence critics and chill free speech.
Other related rulings have also shaped the litigation landscape. In 2023, a judge dismissed Mr. Trump’s related claims against the New York Times and the reporters involved, and ordered him to pay $392,639 toward their legal fees. Separately, in 2022 the same judge dismissed Mary Trump’s separate lawsuit alleging that the president and two of his siblings had defrauded her out of a multimillion-dollar inheritance.
Next procedural step: The parties indicated they will seek a formal dismissal in the coming weeks; the filing said the dismissal would be with prejudice. No financial or other terms were disclosed in the court filing.