Trump Ordered to Pay Attorney’s Fees in NY SLAPP Lawsuit

Former President Donald Trump has been ordered by a New York Court to pay nearly $400,000 in attorney’s fees to the New York Times and three of its reporters in a lawsuit filed by Trump in September 2021 against Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, the New York Times, and the three reporters.

In October 2018, the New York Times published an article detailing how Trump and his siblings allegedly disposed of their father’s assets prior to his passing in “dubious tax schemes”. The articles was based on documents provided by Mary Trump to Times reporters.

Trump claimed that confidential information had been shared by Mary Trump in breach of a confidentiality and non-disparagement agreement resolving his father’s estate and that the defendants were motivated “by a personal vendetta and their desire to gain fame, notoriety, acclaim and a financial windfall and were further intended to advance their political agenda.”

The New York Times and the reporters moved to dismiss the lawsuit based on documentary evidence and for failure to state a cause of action against them under Civil Practice Law and Rules 3211(a)(1) and (a)(7) and based on New York’s amended anti-SLAPP statute.

That motion was granted by order dated May 3, 2023, which provided, in part,

Trump was ordered to pay the attorney’s fees incurred by the newspaper and its reporters in a sum to be determined.

The Court concluded that as relating to the New York Times defendants the causes of action constituted a SLAPP lawsuit, i.e. a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation intended to stifle protected free speech.

In November 2020, Governor Cuomo signed into law an expansion of New York’s anti-SLAPP statute such that going forward the law would protect “any communication in a public place open to the public or a public forum in connection with an issue of public interest” or “any other lawful conduct in furtherance of the exercise of the constitutional right of free speech in connection with an issue of public interest . . . .” N.Y. Civil Rights Law § 76-a. Under the amended law, an award of attorney’s fees is mandatory where a lawsuit is found to violate the anti-SLAPP law.

The New York Times and the three reporters subsequently filed a motion seeking to quantify the amount of the attorney’s fees to be awarded to them pursuant to the May 3, 2023 order.

By decision and order entered on January 12, 2023, Justice Robert Reed of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Dutchess County, found that the reasonable value of the services rendered by counsel to the New York Times defendants to be $392,638.69 and directed the Clerk of the Court to enter judgment in favor of those defendants and against Trump in that amount.

The lawsuit continues as against Mary Trump. She also moved to dismiss the lawsuit. The unjust enrichment claim was dismissed but the motion was denied as to the breach of contract claim in June 2023. Mary Trump has appealed from the denial of that branch of her motion.

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