Mary Trump, NYT lawsuit by ex-POTUS Donald Trump 'curious', says former prosecutor

This week, twice-impeached former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against his niece Mary Trump and the New York Times over his financial records. Former prosecutor Joyce Vance weighed in on what the lawsuit would entail.

Speaking with MSNBC chief legal correspondent Ari Melber, former prosecutor Joyce Vance explained why she described the former president’s lawsuit against his niece and the news outlet as “curious” as well as “frivolous.” Vance first explained that lawyers do not take the term “frivolous” lightly regarding lawsuits due to its implications, citing the Trump campaign’s “Kraken” lawyers who later faced sanctions.

Vance said that the lawsuit could almost be described as such and explained that the suit does not point to a provision in the agreement made between Trump and his niece that Ms. Trump supposedly breached. Vance went on to add that the lawsuit is likely not going to go very far, noting that the former president has a tendency to threaten people with lawsuits, which she described as “a foolish strategy.”

“It seems like a foolish strategy,” said Vance. “If it goes far enough, he’ll be subjected to discovery. This is the notoriously deposition or interview-shy former president who would have to ultimately sit for a deposition here, so that seems to imply that he knows that this case -- this is more of a stunt, perhaps a fundraising strategy than it is a legitimate effort.”

Previously, Ms. Trump explained why she thinks her cousin Donald Trump Jr. is the least intelligent of the former president’s three eldest children. Ms. Trump explained that like his father before him, the twice-impeached former president overlooked his own namesake and elevated his eldest daughter Ivanka Trump instead. The former president’s niece, who is the daughter of Fred Trump Jr, compared Don Jr’s situation to that of her father’s, sharing that both of them are not well-liked by their fathers.

Ms. Trump explained that compared to her father, who decided to pursue his interest in flying rather than the family business, her cousin has no plans of doing the same. Ms. Trump added that her grandfather would have never considered his daughters to be successors to the family business.