PHILADELPHIA _ President Donald Trump's older sister has retired as a federal judge in Philadelphia amidst a court probe of her family's finances, The New York Times reported Thursday.
Maryanne Trump Barry, who was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit by President Bill Clinton in 1999, stepped down in February after four unidentified individuals filed complaints with the court based on a New York Times report that found the Trump family had engaged in dubious tax schemes during the 1990s that increased the inherited wealth of the president and his four siblings.
The Times said Barry, 82, did not respond to requests for comment made by email and telephone calls to her Manhattan apartment. A lawyer for Trump has called the Times report "100 percent false, and highly defamatory."
Barry, who joined the federal bench in New Jersey in 1983 as an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, stopped hearing cases after her brother became president in 2017 but remained listed as an inactive senior judge, a step short of retirement.
The Times said Barry filed her retirement papers 10 days after a court official, in a letter dated Feb. 1, notified the complainants that the investigation was "receiving the full attention" of a judicial conduct council.
By retiring, Barry made the probe moot and the Times said two of the complainants told the newspaper they were informed last week that court judicial conduct probe has been dropped without a finding on the merits of the allegations.
The Times said its investigation found that Barry benefited financially from most of the questionable tax schemes and that she was also in a position to influence the actions taken by her family.
Barry will receive an annual pension that the Times estimated would be between $184,500 and $217,600.
