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MANHATTAN (CN) — President Donald Trump can proceed with a lawsuit against his own niece, a New York judge ruled Thursday, despite the “unmistakable imbalance of power” that defense attorneys claim exists between the parties.
Donald Trump brought the suit against his now-60-year-old niece, Mary Trump, in 2021. He claimed that she conspired with a trio of New York Times reporters in an “insidious plot” to obtain and publicize his tax returns for a Pulitzer Prize-winning 2018 probe into his finances.
He also included claims against the three Times journalists — Susanne Craig, David Barstow and Russell Buettner — but those were dismissed in 2023, and he was ordered to pay nearly $400,000 in legal fees. His case against Mary Trump, whom he accuses of violating a decades-old family estate agreement, still stands.
On Thursday, Mary Trump asked a New York judge to freeze the case for the remainder of her uncle’s presidency. Otherwise, the parties could be set on a “constitutional collision course” that would greatly complicate the litigation, her lawyer Katielynn Townsend said.
Townsend argued that, throughout his presidencies, Donald Trump has “forcefully maintained” the position that he is above the orders of state courts based on the Supremacy Clause. The attorney pointed to some of the commander-in-chief’s most recent state court cases, including an ongoing litigation in state court in Delaware brought by the cofounders of his Truth Social media platform.
Donald Trump’s second term has already impeded the defense’s ability to get discovery, Townsend claimed. She said the president’s counsel has been unable to provide dates and times for a deposition and that he has made several special demands for that deposition, like limiting its length, holding it over several days and appearing remotely.
These issues would “simply disappear” when he leaves office, Townsend said.
But New York Supreme Court Justice Robert Reed noted that, unlike in cases Townsend referenced, Donald Trump is the plaintiff in these proceedings. As such, if he wants his case to proceed, he’ll be required to follow the rules and orders of the court.
“By choosing New York state as the venue for this action … plaintiff has subjected himself to the jurisdiction of this court,” Reed said Thursday.
Despite the apparent difficulty associated with deposing a sitting president, the judge added that Donald Trump has not yet violated any discovery rules or refused to comply with court orders in this case.
“The court finds that a stay is not appropriate at this time in this case,” Reed said.
Townsend also unsuccessfully argued that staying the case would be best for Donald Trump, too, since it would allow him “to focus on his obligations and duties of his office without distraction.”
The president’s lawyer, Michael Madaio, argued that, as the plaintiff, his client is the only one who gets to make that call.
Reed ultimately agreed, but did acknowledge that Donald Trump might have to “make a choice” if the lawsuit starts interfering with his presidential responsibilities. The judge also said that Mary Trump’s side is free to push for the case’s dismissal if Donald Trump fails to comply with discovery.
Lawyers for both sides declined to comment on Reed’s bench ruling.
The president alleges that Mary Trump “smuggled” his tax records out of her attorney’s office after gaining access to them in a 2001 agreement over the estate of Donald Trump’s father, Fred Trump.
That agreement contained a confidentiality clause, Donald Trump claims, which prohibits family members from divulging its details.
He does not dispute that Mary Trump had the right to possess the records herself, only that she breached the agreement by sharing them with the Times. The newspaper’s Pulitzer-winning piece challenged Donald Trump’s status as a self-made billionaire by disclosing how his father gave him hundreds of millions of dollars over his lifetime and dodged taxes.
At the time, the Times said that it got the tax records from a confidential source. But Mary Trump later identified herself as that source in her 2020 book, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” which Donald Trump also sued her over.
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