Donald Trump Handed Legal Win in Battle Against Mary Trump

Former President Donald Trump was handed a legal victory in his battle with estranged niece Mary Trump shortly before becoming a convicted felon in an unrelated case on Thursday.

The former president sued his niece, The New York Times and three reporters in 2021, about a year after Mary Trump’s tell-all memoir Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man was published. The lawsuit was later partially dismissed, with all of the ex-president’s claims against the newspaper and the reporters being dropped last year.

Allegations that Mary Trump had violated a 2001 non-disclosure agreement by publishing her book and acting as a source for New York Times reporting on the former president’s tax returns were not dismissed. On Thursday afternoon, Manhattan’s Appellate Division ruled that there was a “substantial” basis for Donald Trump’s claim against his niece to move forward.

Trump lawyer Alina Habba celebrated the decision a short time later in the following post to X, formerly Twitter: “The Appellate Division has affirmed the validity of President Trump’s substantial claim against Mary Trump. We look forward to resuming this suit to ensure she is held fully accountable for her blatant and egregious breach of contract.”

See more

🚨 The Appellate Division has affirmed the validity of President Trump’s substantial claim against Mary Trump. We look forward to resuming this suit to ensure she is held fully accountable for her blatant and egregious breach of contract.

— Alina Habba (@AlinaHabba) May 30, 2024

Newsweek reached out for comment to a representative for Mary Trump via email on Thursday afternoon.

While the decision was a small win for the former president on an otherwise disastrous Thursday, the appeals court also suggested that Trump might only be awarded “nominal” damages against his niece if he wins the case. He had originally sought $100 million in damages.

The five-judge panel wrote that “at a minimum, nominal damages may still be available on the breach of contract claim even in the absence of actual damages,” according to Reuters.

Mary Trump’s lawyer Anne Champion told the media outlet that Trump is “confident she will be vindicated as the case proceeds,” while adding that “Mary has made valuable contributions to the public’s knowledge of the former president with her unique perspective as a family member.”

Champion went on to point out that the ex-president “can claim no injury for the publication of truthful information.”

Donald Trump shared a Fox News article on the Mary Trump decision to his Truth Social account on Thursday afternoon, shortly before heading to criminal court in Manhattan, where a jury found him guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

Mary Trump did not weigh in on her court loss on Thursday but celebrated her uncle’s criminal conviction during an “Emergency Nerds” livestream immediately after the verdict was read.

“Donald J. Trump has been found guilty of 34 criminal charges in the very first of hopefully many more criminal trials this lifetime criminal will face,” she said. “This is a long time coming.”

“This is a vindication for every single citizen of New York state and every single American,” she added. “I’m so happy… This is the best flipping Christmas morning I’ve ever had in my life… This scumbag finally got what’s coming to him.”