The Post obtained the previously unreleased transcripts and audio from Mary Trump, author of a recent bombshell book about the President and one of his most outspoken critics. Mary Trump, who has said that Donald Trump is unfit to be president and has voiced support for his rival Joe Biden, revealed to the Post that she had secretly taped 15 hours of face-to-face conversations with Barry in 2018 and 2019.
Among the some of the more critical comments made by Barry was commenting on how her younger 74-year-old brother operated as president. “His goddamned tweet and lying, oh my God,” she said, according to the Post. “I’m talking too freely, but you know. The change of stories. The lack of preparation. The lying. Holy shit.”
Barry, a retired federal appellate judge, the Post noted, has never spoken publicly about disagreements with President Donald Trump, but the audio seems to tell a different story of discord and a rift that began when she asked her brother for a favor in the 1980s, which she claims Trump has frequently used to try to take credit for her success.
Barry also said at one point to her niece, “It’s the phoniness of it all. It’s the phoniness and this cruelty. Donald is cruel,” according to the audio scripts and recordings.
Perhaps the most revealing part of the newly released audio is a conversation Barry reportedly had with her niece on Nov. 1, 2018, that seems to be the impetus for the allegation that Trump paid someone to take his SATs, which was one of the most publicized allegations in Mary Trump’s book “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created The World’s Most Dangerous Man,” according to the Post.
According to the Post, the conversation went like this, Barry said to Mary: “He went to Fordham for one year [actually two years] and then he got into University of Pennsylvania because he had somebody take the exams.” “No way!” Mary responded. “He had somebody take his entrance exams?”
Barry then replied, “SATs or whatever. . . . That’s what I believe,” before saying, “I even remember the name.” That person was Joe Shapiro,” Barry said.
The Post went on to note that Mary Trump has said it was not the Joe Shapiro that went to Penn with Donald, and that person has not surfaced.
Chris Bastardi, a spokesman for Mary Trump, told the Post that she began taping conversations in 2018 with her aunt after she claims that her relatives had lied about the value of the family estate two decades earlier during a legal battle over her inheritance, in which she claims she received far less than she expected.
Bastardi said in a statement Saturday evening to CNN that “Mary realized members of her family had lied in prior depositions. Anticipating litigation, she felt it prudent to tape conversations in order to protect herself. She never expected to learn much of what she heard, including the President’s sister, Federal Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, state that Donald Trump had paid someone to take an SAT exam for him.”
Bastardi referred questions about Joe Shapiro, who allegedly took the exam for the President, to Maryanne Trump Barry and President Donald Trump.
CNN has reached out to Maryanne Trump Barry for comment.
CNN’s Jeremy Diamond contributed to the story.