With Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign only beginning, the former president has secured a timely legal victory.
A New York judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Trump’s niece Mary Trump on the grounds that her claims were precluded by a 2001 settlement agreement.
Mary Trump, according to CNN, stated that her uncle Donald had misled her over the bequest from her late uncle Robert Trump.
Her complaint, filed in 2020, said that Donald Trump, his sister Maryanne Trump Berry, and the administrator of Robert’s estate “designed and carried out a complex scheme to siphon funds away from her interests, conceal their grift, and deceive her about the true value of what she had inherited.”
Mary Trump said that she did not grasp the full magnitude of the scam until a 2018 New York Times piece detailing Donald Trump’s alleged shadiness was published.
CNN stated that she presented reporters with 19 boxes of data she received from the settlement.
Mary Trump’s attorneys filed an appeal with the New York Supreme Court on Wednesday, arguing that the court “misconstrued” and improperly applied the law while addressing the settlement conditions.
“The Supreme Court erred by misstating and/or misapplying the applicable legal standard requiring that a release have been knowingly and fairly made in order to later be enforced with respect to claims that were unknown at the time of the release, including fraud claims,” the filing states according to CNN.
Mary Trump’s lawsuit began in 1981 with the passing of her father, Fred Trump Jr.
As reported by Gateway Pundit, upon his death, Mary inherited a prosperous real estate portfolio at the age of 16, which she claims was at least partially taken from her.
She claims that the Trump family “conspired with each other and those loyal to them to abuse their dominant position for their own benefit, breach the trust that had been placed in them, and defraud Mary out of what was rightfully hers.”
The judge did not agree.
The judge concluded that the $2.7 million she received in the 2001 settlement was not unreasonable nor “a case where defendants’ alleged threats precluded the exercise of plaintiff’s free will.”
According to Gateway Pundit, the settlement “clearly and unambiguously” exonerated the defendants of Mary Trump’s charges.
The attorneys for Mary Trump have pledged to fight the verdict.
This family legal triumph coincides with another case against Donald Trump, involving Michael Cohen, being dismissed by a federal court at the same time.
These victories may offer an early boost to Trump’s chances now that his White House campaign is officially underway.