Mary Trump Sues Uncle Donald Trump And His Siblings; Alleges Fraud Is The Family’s “Way of Life”

Mary Trump, niece of Donald Trump, has filed a lawsuit against her uncle and his siblings, claiming the family has committed fraud in an attempt to take her stake of interests in the family’s real-estate empire that was built by Fred Trump, Sr.

According to Mary Trump, this case of fraud is not the first by the family; in fact, in her lawsuit filed in a New York state court, she says, “fraud was not just the family business—it was a way of life.”

The lawsuit is against Donald Trump, his sister Maryanne Trump Barry and the estate of their late brother Robert Trump, CNN reports. Mary Trump accuses both of her uncles, her aunt, several other parties, as well a trustee appointed to act on her behalf, of conspiring to give her “a stack of fraudulent valuations” and force her to sign a settlement agreement that “fleeced her of tens of millions of dollars or more.”

“Rather than protect Mary’s interests, they designed and carried out a complex scheme to siphon funds away from her interests, conceal their grift, and deceive her about the true value of what she had inherited,” the lawsuit says.

Two months ago, these allegations were revealed in Mary Trump’s tell-all book that hit the shelves in July, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.” The book reveals that after her father died, she was taken off of her grandfather’s will. She claims that her uncle Robert Trump told her she was excluded because her father died of alcoholism and therefore wasn’t around to get his portion of the fortune.

Mary Trump and her brother, Fred Trump III, sued their family members but reached a settlement that came with a non-disclosure agreement that Robert Trump fought to enforce before the release of Mary Trump’s book; however, he was unsuccessful in that attempt before his death.

Mary and Fred’s father died in 1981 when she was 16, which left her with a stake in the Trump empire. But 40 years later, she learned that Donald Trump and his siblings “used their position of power to con her into signing her interests away.”

Since she was considered a minor at the time of her father’s passing, it was easy for an appointed trustee on her behalf to be swindled into siding with Donald Trump and his siblings’ fraudulent activity. It made it no better that the attorney appointed was Irwin Durben, Trump, Sr.’s attorney, who was directed to manage Trump-related entities.

The lawsuit claims that in 1991, Donald secretly went to Durben to get him to draft a codicil that would give him complete control of Trump, Sr.’s estate. After his father rejected the codicil, his sister Maryanne “finished the job” by securing a revised will that named her, Donald, and Robert the executors of their father’s estate.

In addition to the fraud claims, Mary Trump’s lawsuit accuses the older family members of breaching their fiduciary duty and committing negligent misrepresentation.

“Through each of these schemes,” the lawsuit says, “Defendants not only deliberately defrauded Mary out of what was rightfully hers, but they also kept her in the dark about it—until now.”