NEW YORK, United States (AFP)— Former US president Donald Trump was ordered to pay nearly US$400,000 in legal costs to the New York Times and multiple journalists Friday after a lawsuit he brought against them was dismissed.

Trump had filed a complaint against the newspaper in September 2021, accusing three journalists of engaging in an “insidious plot” to obtain his tax documents as part of an investigative report that was published in 2018 and ended up winning a Pulitzer Prize.

A judge in the commercial division of the New York state Supreme Court dismissed the case in May 2023, ordering Trump — who is seeking a return to the White House in this year’s election — to pay the defendants’ costs.

The decision issued Friday said the Times’ estimation of having spent $392,638 in attorney’s fees appeared “reasonable,” and ordered Trump to reimburse them in full.

The paper’s investigation revealed how Trump — a real estate mogul who has boasted for decades about building his own business fortune — had in fact received the equivalent of $413 million, adjusted for inflation, from his father over several years, much of which was transferred through a shell company to avoid taxation.