Former U.S. president Donald Trump was ordered Friday to pay $392,638 in legal fees to American daily The New York Times and three of its reporters after a judge dismissed Trump’s lawsuit against them last year, local media reported.
In 2021, Trump sued his niece Mary Trump, The New York Times, and three of its investigative reporters over an alleged breach of a confidentiality agreement related to his tax records. The lawsuit against his niece is still ongoing.
The former President alleged that the reporters were motivated by a personal vendetta when they engaged in an insidious plot to get his personal tax schemes.
The judge dismissed The New York Times and the three journalists from the case last May, deeming that their investigation fell under the First Amendment.
The New York Times exposed Donald Trump’s claims of self-made wealth by documenting how his father, Fred Trump, had given him at least $413 million over the decades, including through tax avoidance schemes.
The New York Times article on Trump’s finances won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018.