Donald Trump is suing The New York Times and his niece Mary Trump over coverage of his tax history, report says

• Donald Trump is suing his niece and The New York Times over coverage of his taxes, the Daily Beast reported.
• The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, said his niece and the Times had an "insidious plot" to get his records.
• Trump is seeking "no less than One Hundred Million Dollars" in damages.

Former President Donald Trump sued his niece Mary Trump, The New York Times, and three of its reporters over coverage of his tax records, the Daily Beast reported.

Trump filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in Dutchess County, New York, which claimed his niece and the Times came up with an "insidious plot" on how to get his records for reporting on his tax history.

The Times reporters named in the suit are David Barstow, Susanne Craig, and Russ Buettner, who won a 2019 Pulitzer Prize for their 18-month investigation into Trump's finances.

Damages requested from the Times and Mary Trump will be determined at trial but are "believed to be no less than One Hundred Million Dollars," the Daily Beast reported.

Trump has refused to release his tax returns and has waged several legal battles to block their release. In a court filing last month, his attorneys asked a federal judge to block Congress from obtaining his tax returns.

The Daily Beast reported that the lawsuit said the Times convinced Mary Trump to "smuggle records out of her attorney's office and turn them over to The Times."

The Trump Organization is also the center of a tax fraud investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney's office.

Trump was named personally in an indictment released on July 1 that said Trump wrote checks for family members of Allen Weisselberg, the CFO of the organization. Weisselberg is also facing charges for tax crimes.

Mary Trump, who has been a vocal critic of her uncle, recently told Insider's Joshua Zitser that Trump is a "fascist." In August, she released a book about her uncle titled, "The Reckoning: Our Nation's Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal."

A New York Times spokesperson told Insider: "The Times's coverage of Donald Trump's taxes helped inform citizens through meticulous reporting on a subject of overriding public interest. This lawsuit is an attempt to silence independent news organizations and we plan to vigorously defend against it."

The Trump Organization did not respond to Insider's request for comment at the time of publication.