Ever in the headlines, former President Donald Trump is suing his estranged niece Mary L. Trump.
The suit was filed in a Dutchess County court, New York and alleges Mary Trump and the team of investigative journalists 'engaged in an insidious plot to obtain confidential and highly-sensitive records'.
Unlike every other major-party presidential nominee in recent decades, Donald has refused to make his tax records public.
While he initially dismissed The New York Times (NYT) piece exposing his finances as 'boring' and a 'hit piece', it appears the article's damage is starting to bite.
He claims the has suffered $100million in damages since its release and seeks that figure as compensation.
Trump, unlike every other major-party presidential nominee in recent history, has declined to make his tax records public.
Speaking to the Daily Beast, Mary told the news website the legal action motivated by: "Desperation. … The walls are closing in and he is throwing anything against the wall that will stick."
A spokesperson for the NYT said: "This lawsuit is an attempt to silence independent news organizations and we plan to vigorously defend against it."
Who is Mary Trump?
Mary Trump is the estranged niece of former US President Trump, she has been consistently critical of both Donald and his close family since the businessman took office.
A clinical phycologist by trade, Mary claims to have suffered homophobic abuse by the entire Trump family and says she was defrauded out of tens of millions of dollars by Donald following the release of her late uncle Robert's will.
However, she also claims to have been deliberately deceived during the release of her grandfather's estate. This is where she allegedly came into possession of Donald's tax records.
These later were key to the Pulitzer Prize winning story by the NYT, which uncovered the then president's 'tax dodges' and false claims his wealth was 'self-made'.
Mary is the author of the hugely popular book 'Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man'.
A tell all expose on President Trump and his family dynamic, it provided readers with an inside view of Donald's life, his 'sycophantic' children and their spouses.
It brought to light allegations of tax fraud to the NYT, while the Trump family launched a lawsuit to stop the book being published.
The legal case failed and the book sold over a million copies in its first week of release.
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