Judge hits Trump with massive bill over failed attempt to sue New York Times

Former President Donald Trump has been ordered to pay nearly half a million dollars to The New York Times to cover legal fees involved in a lawsuit he filed against them, Times reporter Susanne Craig revealed Friday.

The lawsuit, which was filed against The Times, Craig and her fellow reporters David Barstow and Russ Buettner, along with the ex-president's niece Mary Trump, alleged that the paper conspired in an "insidious plot" to obtain Trump's tax returns.

That suit was thrown out last year, with New York State Justice Robert Reed saying the allegations "fail as a matter of constitutional law."

In the latest decision, Reed ordered Trump to pay the newspaper $392,638.

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All of this comes as Trump faces a barrage of other legal problems, including four criminal cases against him and multiple civil trials.

The Times released a bombshell report about Trump's tax returns, which he had promised to release as a candidate but never did, in late 2020. That report revealed that Trump had used years of business losses to drastically reduce his tax burden.