A household lawyer and the sister of slain Texas soldier Vanessa Guillen each dismissed a report within the Atlantic Tuesday alleging that former President Donald Trump refused to pay for the Military specialist’s funeral and disparaged her ethnicity.
The piece, written by the journal’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, claims Trump fumed a couple of $60,000 invoice he acquired from Guillen’s household for her funeral throughout a December 2020 Oval Workplace assembly – allegedly telling aides that “It doesn’t value 60,000 bucks to bury a f—king Mexican.”
“Don’t pay it!” Trump ordered his then chief of employees Mark Meadows, after beforehand telling the Guillen household he would help with Vanessa’s funeral bills, in line with Goldberg.
Mayra Guillen, Vanessa’s sister, slammed the Atlantic report as “hurtful & disrespectful,” and indicated that the previous president handled her household with “respect” within the aftermath of sister’s brutal killing.
“Wow,” Mayra wrote on X, in response to Goldberg’s reporting. “I don’t admire how you’re exploiting my sister’s demise for politics – hurtful & disrespectful to the vital adjustments she made for service members.”
“President Donald Trump did nothing however present respect to my household & Vanessa,” she added. “In reality, I voted for President Trump immediately.”
Natalie Khawam, an lawyer for the Guillen household, accused the Atlantic editor of mendacity within the piece.
“After having handled a whole lot of reporters in my authorized profession, that is sadly the primary time I’ve to go on file and name out Jeffrey Goldberg@the Atlantic: not solely did he misrepresent our dialog however he outright LIED in HIS sensational story,” Khawam wrote on X.
“Extra importantly, he used and exploited my shoppers, and Vanessa Guillen’s homicide… for affordable political achieve,” she added.
Khawam referred to as the “timing” of Goldberg’s report “fairly suspicious.”
“[T]his supposed dialog that Trump had would have occurred over 4 years in the past!” the lawyer famous. “Why a narrative about it now?!”
“As everybody is aware of, not solely did Trump assist our army, he additionally invited my shoppers to the Oval Workplace and supported the I Am Vanessa Guillen invoice too,” Khawam continued. “I’m grateful we had been profitable in getting bipartisan assist of the I Am Vanessa Guillen Act, and due to everybody’s onerous work and efforts our service members now have extra protections and rights whereas serving our nation.”
Goldberg claims in his piece that Khawam advised him “she despatched the invoice [for Vanessa’s funeral] to the White Home, however no cash was ever acquired by the household from Trump.”
Meadows additionally dismissed Goldberg’s reporting.
“Any suggestion that President Trump disparaged Ms. Guillen or refused to pay for her funeral bills is completely false,” he wrote on X. “He was nothing however variety, gracious, and wished to be sure that the army and the U.S. authorities did proper by Vanessa Guillen and her household.”
Vanessa Guillen, 20, was killed at Fort Cavazos, previously Fort Hood close to Killeen, Texas in 2020 by a fellow soldier Aaron Robinson, who dedicated suicide following a confrontation with police after Guillen’s physique was discovered within the woods.
Robinson’s then-girlfriend, Cecily Aguilar, helped dismember and conceal Guillen’s physique.
She pleaded responsible final 12 months for her function within the crime and was sentenced to 30 years in jail.
An investigation by army officers into Guillen’s homicide decided that she was additionally sexually harassed and that leaders didn’t take applicable motion.
The Atlantic didn’t reply to The Submit’s request for remark.
In 2020, Goldberg reported that Trump referred to useless US troops as “suckers” and “losers” on the morning of a deliberate go to to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France in 2018.
Trump denied that report.
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