OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump has scored a victory in the New York Court of Appeals in a case that is not related to his hush money verdict.
On the same day as he was found guilty of 34 counts related to falsifying business records in regards to a non-disclosure agreement payment to adult movie star Stormy Daniels, the appeals court said it would allow him to sue his niece, Mary Trump, for providing information related to his taxes to The New York Times in 2018.
“The Appellate Division in Manhattan found a ‘substantial’ legal basis for Donald Trump to claim that his niece violated confidentiality provisions of a 2001 settlement over the estate of his father, Fred Trump Sr.,” the report said.
“A five-judge panel said it was unclear whether Mary Trump’s disclosures were subject to confidentiality, or how long both sides intended the provisions to remain in effect,” it said.
However, the court did signal that the former president is unlikely to be awarded anything close to the $100 million he is seeking.
“At a minimum, nominal damages may still be available on the breach of contract claim even in the absence of actual damages,” the court said.
“Mary has made valuable contributions to the public’s knowledge of the former president with her unique perspective as a family member,” the attorney for Mary Trump, Anne Champion, said. “We are confident she will be vindicated as the case proceeds.”
“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,” the former president’s attorney, Alina Habba, said.
Reuters reported:
Thursday’s decision upheld a June 2023 ruling by Justice Robert Reed of the state Supreme Court.
Reed also dismissed Donald Trump’s claims against the Times and three reporters, and in January ordered him to pay $392,639 of their legal fees.
In November 2022, Reed dismissed Mary Trump’s separate lawsuit accusing her uncle and two of his siblings of defrauding her out of a multi-million-dollar inheritance.
The Times’ reporting challenged Donald Trump’s claim that he was a self-made billionaire.
It said he received the equivalent of $413 million from his father, largely the result of “dubious” tax schemes in the 1990s, including undervaluing his family’s real estate holdings. Donald Trump has denied wrongdoing.
In his criminal case many legal experts have said the former president has a fantastic chance of having the convictions squashed on appeal.
Legal expert and constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley said following former President Donald Trump’s guilty verdict in his hush money trial on Thursday that there are grounds for an easy reversal on “procedural and constitutional” grounds.
Turley spoke to Fox News outside the Manhattan courtroom moments after Trump became the first former U.S. president to be convicted on felony charges.
The jury found him guilty on all 34 counts, though for weeks, legal experts, including Turley, have noted that the case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was based on manufactured charges while presiding Judge Juan Merchan was severely — and perhaps unconstitutionally — hampering Trump’s defense.
“I think the level of reversible error here really is quite considerable. It runs the waterfront of procedural to constitutional problems, including federal constitutional violations,” Turley began. “I don’t even see how you can meet the unanimity requirement in the way that this thing was instructed.
“Yeah, they were unanimous that some crime was committed on the secondary crime, but it’s apparently between the jurors and God as to what that crime was unless there is going to be some release of a jury form. We have not seen that jury form,” he continued, referencing a document that could explain on what basis jurors found Trump guilty.
“I think that, in the end, we were going to have a reversal. I’m fairly confident of that. Now, in the New York appellate system, they have a rule for Trump. They are very good lawyers in the New York system and credible people who want the system to work the way it is designed,” Turley continued. “I am eternally an optimist. I was an optimist about a hung jury. And I’m an optimist now about the appellate judges.”
