Sister of slain Army private Trump scorned says The Atlantic misled her about focus on story

The sister and attorney for the family of 20-year-old Vanessa Guillén, the slain Army soldier The Atlantic claimed former President Trump despised while in office, appeared exclusively on “The Ingraham Angle” to rebuke the report.

Mayra Guillén called out “vile” The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who authored the report claiming Trump was referring to her sister, the daughter of Mexican immigrants who was murdered by a fellow soldier at Fort Hood in 2020, as a “f- –ing Mexican” and refused to pay the money he promised to provide for his funeral.

“It was all kinds of damaging,” Guillén told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Wednesday. “It brought back so many bad memories that we had already given after four long years, and it was just a slap in the face to my family, to myself being the main spokesperson for them and my sister, who unfortunately passed away. it was just a lie from the beginning, and it was very upsetting.”

Atlantic report claims Trump disparaged slain Army private attacked by family, others: ‘absolutely false’

Natalie Khawam, the family’s attorney, said she was first confronted by Goldberg about the story in January, but was told the story was about the four years since Vanessa Guillén’s murder.

“He first contacted me and said he was interested in doing (a story of) the four years since Vanessa’s murder,” Khawam said. “I texted Mayra. I said, ‘Hey, can you take it from here?’ Do you want to talk to him about Vanessa’s case? They’re going to discuss more about the case, things that he found.” And he talked to him in January. He contacted me again recently and that’s where the story came up, and obviously it wasn’t about Vanessa.”

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When asked if she felt cheated by Goldberg, Mayra Guillén replied “definitely”.

“Initially, when we first talked, he did mention that this would be, again, a recap of the four years and how we passed the legislation and all the accomplishments that were made in Vanessa’s honor,” he said Guillén and added that Goldberg did not tell her about the derogatory comments he planned to report about Trump and told her he expected the story to be published around April.

“I gave him a statement, letting him know that I wasn’t happy with what he was going to release, and I didn’t want any more part of it, or my sister’s name being part of that article. And still he proceeded to not only post it, but basically tarnish my sister’s image with it, and it’s very upsetting,” she later said.

“This piece … was full of lies,” Khawam said. “I myself spoke to him and told him certain things. In fact, I said that I could not talk about the subject of these things and not these things. And then he says: ‘Natalie Khawam said this’ and that. It wasn’t true, that’s what really bothers me, I’ve worked with both sides of the aisle, with producers and reporters and the media He just went so below the belt just to get a story out, honestly, it was unethical and I had to take it on.

In response to “The Ingraham Angle,” The Atlantic issued a statement saying “Everyone should read this essential story in The Atlantic.”

Goldberg also appeared to dismiss Guillén, Khawam and others’ criticism of his report, telling CNN “I don’t make much of it.”

“The sister wasn’t at the meeting. The family attorney wasn’t at the meeting. Mark Meadows was at the meeting. Kash Patel was at the meeting. There were a bunch of senior officials at the meeting. I have sources. who were sitting in that meeting, I have contemporaneous notes taken by the participants in that meeting that describe exactly what I described in the story,” Goldberg said Tuesday night.

Goldberg began his report on Trump’s interaction with the Guillén family in July 2020 when they visited the White House. While comforting the family, Trump offered to provide financial assistance to cover funeral costs. But Goldberg reported that Trump flew into a rage when he received the bill, refusing to pay it, saying, “It doesn’t cost $60,000 to bury a fucking Mexican!”

According to the report, Khawam told Goldberg that the family received no money from Trump and that the costs were ultimately covered in part by the military and donations.

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Both Mayra Guillén and Khawam took to social media to denounce the report.

“Wow. I don’t appreciate how you’re exploiting my sister’s death for politics – hurtful and disrespectful of the important changes she made for service members,” Guillén wrote to X. “President Donald Trump did not more than showing respect to my family and Vanessa, I actually voted for President Trump today.

The report included denials from then-Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and Kash Patel, the former chief of staff to then-acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, who were allegedly at the meeting.

Meadows spoke out against The Atlantic.

“I was in the discussions featured in The Atlantic’s latest hit article against President Trump. Let me say this. Any suggestion that President Trump belittled Ms. Guillén or refused to pay expenses of her funeral is absolutely false,” Meadows wrote to X. “He was nothing but nice, kind and wanted to make sure the US military and government did right by Vanessa Guillen and her family.”

Ben Williamson, a spokesman for Meadow, shared a screenshot of the statement he provided to Goldberg saying, “President Donald Trump absolutely did not say that,” and said how Goldberg “translated” that comment into the report, which said Meadows “denied doing it. heard Trump make the statement.”

“Treat this rogue piece accordingly,” Williamson warned.

Source of original article: Sister of slain Army private Trump scorned says The Atlantic misled her about focus on story