Maryanne Trump Barry, the eldest sister of former President Donald Trump, has died, two sources with knowledge of the matter told CNN. She was 86.
Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the former president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., spoke briefly about his aunt as he exited a Manhattan courthouse Monday, calling it a “rough day for myself and my family,”
Trump Jr. told reporters after testifying in a civil fraud trial that he had been informed of the news as he pulled up to the courthouse Monday morning.
“I’m very close with her grandson. We hang out all the time. And so it’s obviously a rough day for that,” he said.
Barry, a former federal judge and prosecutor, was selected by President Ronald Reagan to serve on the Federal District Court in New Jersey in 1983. She was subsequently nominated by President Bill Clinton to the 3rd Court of Appeals in 1999 and retired in 2019.
Her retirement came amid an investigation into whether she violated judicial conduct rules by committing tax fraud following reporting from The New York Times that alleged the former president and his siblings utilized tax schemes to inflate their inheritances. A disclosure form from Barry’s Senate confirmation that presented a $1 million contribution from a Trump family-owned company reportedly played a vital – though inadvertent – role in uncovering the alleged fraud.
Because she retired, the investigation into Barry closed, leaving her entitled to an annual retirement salary and free from judicial rebuke. Her attorney denied the allegations.
Donald Trump’s rise in politics would soon bring further attention to his family. Though Barry never spoke publicly about disagreements with her brother, audio excerpts from conversations between Barry and her niece, Mary Trump, obtained by CNN in 2020 unveiled Barry delivering sharp criticism of…
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