They’ve been struggling with marital problems due to his travel and tweets, reports say.
Donald Trump Jr., President Trump’s eldest child and the father of five himself, is being sued for divorce by his wife Vanessa.
Vanessa Trump,40, a former model and actress who married Trump Jr. in 2005, filed late Thursday in New York for an uncontested divorce, according to the court docket. Uncontested means there likely won’t be a fight over custody or assets, according to the reports.
The New York Post was first to report the news. The Post ‘s Page Six gossip column also reported Wednesday the two were struggling with marital problems due to Trump Jr.’s heavy travel schedule and his controversial tweets, mostly related to defending his father from all criticism.
They are the parents of five of President Trump’s grandchildren; theirs range in age from 3 to 10.
Trump Jr., 40, was drawn into the Trump administration’s ongoing problems with a sprawling investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election after he admitted to meeting a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower to get dirt on his father’s 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton.
In September, Trump Jr. talked about the meeting to the Senate Judiciary Committee staff investigating Russian interference. « I did not collude with any foreign government and do not know of anyone who did, » Trump Jr. said, according to Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., a member of the committee.
This week, The New York Times reported special counsel Robert Mueller has subpoenaed the Trump Organization to turn over documents, including some related to Russia, in the first known instance of the special counsel demanding records directly related to President Trump’s businesses.
Also this week, Trump Jr., followed his father in stumping for a Republican candidate in a congressional special election in Pennsylvania, hoping to stave off defeat for state Rep. Rick Saccone at the hands of Democrat Conor Lamb. Lamb won anyway.
It’s not clear what effect if any a divorce might have on Trump Jr.’s involvement in the Russia investigation if Vanessa Trump is no longer covered by spousal privilege, according to Joshua Forman, a celebrity divorce attorney and partner at Chemtob, Moss & Forman in New York.
“In theory, Vanessa could talk about what Donald Trump Jr. knew about the Russia investigation if spousal privilege doesn’t apply, but that would take the divorce into a dark place, » Forman says. « However, she may have signed a prenuptial agreement with a confidentiality clause and would thus be precluded from speaking during or after marriage.
« If there isn’t a confidentiality clause and there isn’t a prenup in place, then once the divorce is complete, she could, if allowable by the law in the jurisdiction she is called to testify in, be compelled to testify.”
Trump Jr, along with his brother Eric Trump, have been running the Trump Organization since their father became president in 2017 and their sister Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, joined the White House staff in Washington.
All three are the children of Trump and his first wife, Ivana Trump. The president himself has been divorced twice and is now married to his third wife, first lady Melania Trump.
Don Jr. and Vanessa were recently unnerved in February when Vanessa opened an envelope addressed to her husband but sent to her mother’s New York apartment, and white powder spilled out. She was taken to a New York hospital as a precaution.
The envelope also contained a typewritten note reading, « You are an awful, awful person. I am surprised that your father lets you speak on TV. You make the family idiot, Eric, look smart. This is the reason why people hate you, so you are getting what you deserve…. »
On March 1, the FBI arrested Daniel Frisiello, 24, of Beverly, Mass., in connection with the envelope. He is charged with sending multiple letters containing « suspicious white powder » and threatening messages to elected officials, authorities said.
