Trump Hid 'Fraud' on Inheritance for Years, Niece Tells Judge

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Bloomberg News


Erik Larson 10 hrs ago

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump’s niece is balking at the former president’s claim that she waited too long to file her multi-million dollar fraud suit against him, saying she would have sued sooner if he hadn’t covered his tracks so well.

Mary Trump on Friday asked a judge to deny Donald Trump’s motion to dismiss the suit, which she filed in September against her uncle and his siblings, Robert Trump and Maryanne Trump Barry. She claims they conspired to skim tens of millions of dollars off her stake in the family business for decades after her father died and left them as her fiduciaries.

The suit by the daughter of Donald Trump’s late older brother, Fred Trump Jr., is one of several serious legal threats the former president faces as a private citizen. If the case in New York state court in Manhattan survives, he could be deposed under oath by the end of the year or early 2022.

The fight may hinge on New York’s statute of limitations, which is two years from the time a victim “discovered the fraud, or could with reasonable diligence have discovered it.” Donald Trump, Maryanne Trump and the estate of Robert Trump, who died in August, argue their niece could have sued much earlier based on documents they handed over in other legal disputes, including a bitter court fight over the family patriarch’s 1999 will.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-hid-fraud-on-inheritance-for-years-niece-tells-judge/ar-BB1e3qos?li=BBnb7Kz

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Hope it all gets a fair shakeout

She has skin in the game if she can pull the correct legal maneuvers

[apnu]

22. In the American legal system? Good luck.

Our legal system is broken and broken intentionally to benefit the rich and powerful. Mary Trump has a gigantic mountain to climb.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Isn't that admitting that the Trump Estate defrauded Mary Trump?

It's arguing about time limitations, not validity of the claim.

[cstanleytech]

3. No, arguing about legal time limitations does not constitute an admission of guilt.

[mobeau69]

5. Legally

[thesquanderer]

7. Right. Even an innocent person could pursue a simple time limitation defense before...

...spending all the time and money necessary to defend against a more complicated underlying accusation. It's normal for anyone to look for the easy ways out before the harder ones, regardless of guilt or innocence.

[riversedge]

4. Hoping lady Justice working hard to prevail.

[twodogsbarking]

6. Trump should be assumed to be

guilty until all attempts to show innocence are exhausted.

[orangecrush]

8. Welcome to D.U..

[twodogsbarking]

11. Thank you.

Appreciated.

[DeminPennswoods]

9. She describes the suit over Fred Jr's share of the estate

in her book. She had a lawyer, but, iirc, he was connected to her because the lawyer had also worked for Fred Sr. I can't recall all the details, but it didn't seem like she had the greatest lawyer in 1999. Then the NYT reporters approached her for a story. She ended up getting all the documents that were left from her last atty and giving them to the NYT. She's said she didn't know what was in all the boxes or understand what they showed. It was only after the NYT went through them and wrote their blockbuster story on the Trump family finances that she fully understood how she and her brother had been cheated.

[iluvtennis]

13. + agree. that's what I recall from the book as well. the donald, maryanne, robert, and elizabeth

cheated Mary trump and her brother out of the percentage of the estate that there father (Fred Jr) would have received had he been living.

[FakeNoose]

10. It seems to boil down to Mary's aunt Maryanne Trump Barry

Mary's aunt is the last one who could testify and provide evidence that Freddy's daughter Mary (and her brother) were cheated out of their father's share of the estate. But if Auntie Maryanne were to do that, it would cost her as well as Donald because they both benefited from the fraud.

Last minute tampering of the will (before the death of father Fred) would have been witnessed by someone in the family. I'm guessing it was Auntie Maryanne and her mother Mary. Besides Donald, who did the tampering.

[BlueIdaho]

12. Since Maryanne Trump is a retired judge

I’d hope she would tell the truth under oath about the shenanigans Donny pulled to cheat Mary out of her fair share of the family money,

[FakeNoose]

16. Yes one would think so

However, she's also complicit in the fraud. And she's a Trump, so ...

[oldsoftie]

14. "..could have sued much earlier based on documents they handed over.."?

So they're saying "we gave her enough info YEARS ago that we were being fraudulent, she should have sued then"?

[DeminPennswoods]

17. Sure sounds like it

nt

[MineralMan]

15. "In Chancery" by John Galsworthy

illustrates this kind off fraudulent court filing and statute of limitations nonsense very well. In the end, the lawyers get everything and the family gets bupkes.

It's a slog of a read, but I thought it was worth reading.

[rsdsharp]

18. There's a doctrine in the law called the discovery rule.

Basically it states that a statute of limitations doesn’t begin to run until the plaintiff has sufficient knowledge of the facts to realize they have a cause of action, or in the exercise of reasonable diligence should have discovered the facts.

It’s often invoked in fraud cases where the potential defendant has concealed relevant facts. Her problem is that she said in her book that she discovered the facts when she got documents from her attorney to give to the NY Times. I think it’s going to be hard to argue she couldn’t have discovered the facts. Her lawyer had the facts in his possession. He apparently didn’t review them sufficiently when advising her to accept the settlement.

[LiberalLovinLug]

19. I wish her the very best of luck

Love to see her win her case

[Martin68]

20. Of all the disgusting things Trump has done, this is one of the most shameful. Cheating your own

sister. Of course, it does not sink to the level of being responsible for 500,000 Covid deaths, an insurrection against the US government, or keeping kids in cages.

[Dave Starsky]

24. If Trump was ever fair or straight-dealing with anyone in his life...

Then it was entirely by accident, and I'm sure he immediately tried to screw the other party over as soon as he found out about it.

[Blue Owl]

21. K&R

[travelingwithhendoe]

23. Some day the orange demon will face consequences.