What is the current status and timeline of Donald Trump’s civil claims against Mary L. Trump and the Times as of 2026?
Executive summary
Donald J. Trump’s civil claims stemming from The New York Times’ reporting and his niece Mary L. Trump have splintered into multiple actions since 2021: a New York lawsuit that was dismissed and produced fee awards against him, and a separate, large federal defamation suit filed in Florida in September 2025 that remains active as of early 2026 [1] [2] [3]. Courts have already rejected key tort theories tied to news gathering under New York law and imposed costs, while the Florida federal case is proceeding through pleading-stage skirmishes and amendments [4] [3].
1. Origins: the 2021 complaint and the charges against Mary L. Trump and the Times
The dispute began when Trump sued Mary L. Trump, The New York Times and individual reporters in a complaint alleging an “insidious plot” to obtain his confidential tax records and asserting tort and defamation claims arising from the Times’ 2018 reporting and subsequent book “Lucky Loser,” which relied in part on information from Mary Trump [1] [5]. The New York complaint sought substantial damages and accused reporters of persuading Mary Trump to remove records from an attorney’s office, a factual narrative the filings and reporting focused on at the outset [1] [6].
2. New York rulings: dismissal of tort claims and fee awards against Trump
New York courts have been hostile to Trump’s attempts to impose civil liability for news gathering: a court dismissed his tort claims under CPLR 3211(g), finding they lacked “a substantial basis in law,” and applied First Amendment and anti‑SLAPP principles to reject aiding-and-abetting, unjust enrichment and negligent supervision theories, while ordering Trump to pay defendants’ attorneys’ fees under New York law [4]. Earlier reporting and rulings resulted in a judge ordering Trump to pay nearly $400,000 in legal costs to The Times and its reporters after his suit in New York was tossed for failing as a matter of constitutional law [2] [6].
3. Parallel and successor litigation: the 2025 federal defamation suit in Florida
Separately, Trump filed a sprawling federal defamation suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida on September 15, 2025, seeking roughly $15 billion and alleging defamation tied to Times articles and the Lucky Loser book; the filing targeted the company, authors and Penguin Random House and recast claims into multiple discrete defamation counts [3]. The Florida court criticized the initial complaint for violating Rule 8 and ordered a shorter, reorganized pleading within 28 days, and docket records show the case remained active into January 2026 with amendments and procedural motions underway [3] [7].
4. The status of claims specifically against Mary L. Trump
While the New York suit charged Mary L. Trump alongside the Times, some reporting in 2024 indicated those personal claims had not been fully resolved at that time even as the Times’ related claims were dismissed [6]. By November 2024, however, legal analysis documented that the court had dismissed the tort claims tied to the news gathering theory and awarded fees, a ruling that undercuts the civil liability against third‑party sources like Mary under the particular statutes and precedents applied [4]. Public reporting does not provide a single, final adjudication of every separate claim against Mary in every jurisdiction; the available sources indicate major legal wins for the Times defendants and ongoing litigation elsewhere [4] [6].
5. How the defendants and observers frame the litigation and what comes next
The Times publicly declared the Florida-filed lawsuit meritless and characterized the action as an attempt to intimidate independent reporting, while defenders of Trump have said they plan to press claims further or expand them in amendment filings [8] [5]. Legal observers note a pattern: judges applying anti‑SLAPP protections and strict pleading rules have trimmed or dismissed components of these suits and shifted fees to Trump in at least the New York proceedings, while the Florida defamation action remains alive but constrained by procedural rulings that could shape its survivability [4] [3] [2]. Given the procedural posture in early 2026 — fee awards and dismissals in New York, and an amended, contested defamation complaint in Florida — the dispute is best described as partially defeated on constitutional and anti‑SLAPP grounds but not entirely extinguished because of the separate federal case still unfolding [4] [3] [7].