Maryanne Trump Barry: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

Donald Trump with his older sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, in Scotland on June 10, 2008.

Maryanne Trump Barry is President Donald Trump’s oldest sibling. She was born April 5, 1937.

She spent much of her professional career behind the bench, as a circuit court judge. Trump Barry is said to have a close relationship with her brother, despite holding differing opinions on certain key issues vital to his presidency.

Here’s what you need to know.

1. The Trump Family’s Alleged Tax Scheme, Investigated By the New York Times, Was Unearthed Because of a Financial Disclosure Form Maryanne Trump Barry Had to Fill Out in 1999

The New York Times✔@nytimes

President Trump has sold himself as a self-made billionaire but a Times investigation found that he received more than $400 million from his father’s empire, much of it through dubious tax schemes during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud. https://nyti.ms/2ycj05o 

3:26 PM – Oct 2, 2018

Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father

The president has long sold himself as a self-made billionaire, but a Times investigation found that he received at least $413 million in today’s dollars from his father’s real estate empire, much of…

nytimes.com

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Maryanne Trump Barry was confirmed as a federal appellate judge in 1999 by the Senate. Part of that process involved filling out a financial disclosure form. New York Times reporter Susanne Craig found the financial record, which had not been redacted.

The reporter noticed a $1 million contribution that seemed abnormal. The form indicated the money was from a company owned by the Trumps, called All County Building Supply & Maintenance.

The New York Times team investigated the company. Their digging led to an explosive expose on how the Trump family allegedly avoided taxes. According to the investigation, All County Building Supply was created in order to move money from Fred Trump’s companies and give it to his children.

The process appears to have been very simple. As the Times explained, Fred Trump paid vendors and maintenance crews for improvements to his properties. Beginning in 1992, the name “All County Building Supply & Maintenance” started appearing on the checks that were sent out to pay the maintenance crews.

The next step was for “All Country” to send an invoice to Fred Trump’s company, to be reimbursed for the payments to the vendors. But those invoices “were padded, marked up by 20 percent, or 50 percent, or even more, records show. The Trump siblings split the markup” along with John Walter, Fred Trump’s nephew, who was reportedly in charge of computerizing the payroll systems. This system would have allowed the Trump siblings to receive millions of dollars, tax-free. President Trump was estimated to have received $413 million in current dollars from Fred Trump’s company. You can read the full New York Times expose here.

2. Maryanne Trump Barry, a Republican, Was Nominated to the Circuit Court by President Bill Clinton

Mount Holyoke College Maryanne Trump Barry, circa 1958.

Maryanne Trump Barry was the first member of her family to graduate college, according to a bio on her alma mater’s website. She studied political science and government at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts and graduated in 1958. She went on to earn a master’s degree from Columbia University in 1962.

She got married and became a mother. But she was not done with her education. When her son was in sixth grade, Trump Barry began law school at Hofstra University. She became a lawyer in 1974 and went to work for the Justice Department, specifically in the Office of the U.S. Attorney in New Jersey. Out of 62 lawyers, Trump Barry was reportedly just one of two women. Her titles during that nine-year span included Assistant U.S. Attorney, Chief of the Appeals Division and First Assistant U.S. Attorney.

Trump Barry’s next job was to move behind the bench. President Ronald Reagan made her a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey in 1983. She served on that court until 1999, when President Bill Clinton nominated her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third District. Trump Barry still holds the title of senior judge but took an “inactive status” in 2017.

3. Maryanne Trump Barry’s Second Husband, Also a Lawyer, Worked For Donald Trump; A Case Involving Trump Casinos Ended Up in Maryanne’s Courtroom

Maryanne Trump’s first marriage was to David Desmond. They had one son together, David William Desmond. They divorced in 1980.

Two years later, she tied the knot with fellow attorney John J. Barry. He apparently fit right in with the family, because he worked alongside his brother-in-law, Donald Trump. Barry worked for the law firm Kimmelman, Wolff and Samson and represented Donald Trump’s New Jersey casinos.

There was one case that thrust all three together, while Maryanne Trump Barry was a judge on the U.S. District Court in New Jersey. Her brother’s associate, Joseph Weichselbaum, owned a company that flew high-paying customers to Donald Trump’s New Jersey casinos via helicopter. Trump Barry herself had ridden on one of these helicopters.

But this business relationship became very complicated when Weichselbaum was convicted of drug trafficking. The case had been handled in Cincinnati, Ohio, but when it was time for sentencing, it was suddenly moved to New Jersey– to Maryanne Trump Barry’s courtroom in Newark. Judge Trump Barry recused herself from the case, citing the fact that she and her husband had flown on a Weichselbaum helicopter.

Weichselbaum had been living in Trump Plaza in Manhattan at the time. Donald Trump allegedly wrote a letter to the court asking for leniency for Weichselbaum; in recent years, he has denied sending such a letter. In the end, Weichselbaum was sentenced to three years in prison but served only 18 months.

John Barry died in 2000, reportedly from cancer. His obituary in the New York Timesstated that he was a partner with the Tompkins, McGuire, Wachenfeld & Barry law firm based in Newark, New Jersey at the time of his death.

The obit pointed out that Donald J. Trump had been among Barry’s clients. It also stated that Barry had represented “Eddie Antar, the electronics retail chain executive known as Crazy Eddie. Mr. Antar eventually pleaded guilty to racketeering after the chain had collapsed, he had disappeared, and it had been determined that he had spirited millions of dollars to foreign countries.”

Barry and Maryanne Trump had one daughter together, Barbara Coates.

4. Maryanne Trump Barry is Said to Be Close With Her Brother, But She & Donald Appear To Have Differing Opinions When It Comes to Immigration

5. Trump Barry Issued Opinions From the Bench That Indicate She is Pro-Choice