Sister of slain Army private Trump reportedly disparaged says The Atlantic misled her about story's focus
The sister and family lawyer of 20-year-old Vanessa Guillén, the slain Army private who The Atlantic claimed former President Trump disparaged while in office, appeared exclusively on "The Ingraham Angle" to rebuke the report.
Mayra Guillén called out The Atlantic's "vile" editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg who authored the report alleging Trump referred to his 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 her funeral.
"It was just hurtful in all kinds of ways," Guillén told Fox News' Laura Ingraham on Wednesday. "It brought back so many bad memories that we had given already after four long years, and it was just a slap in the face to my family, myself, being the main spokesperson for them and for my sister, who unfortunately passed away. It was just a lie from the very beginning, and it was very upsetting."
Natalie Khawam, the family attorney, said she was first confronted by Goldberg for the story back in January, but was told the story was about the four-year anniversary of Vanessa Guillén's murder.
"He first reached out to me, and he said he was interested in doing [a story of] the four-year anniversary of Vanessa's murder," Khawam said. "I texted Mayra. I said, 'Hey, can you take it from here? You wanna speak to him about Vanessa's case? They're gonna discuss more issues about the case, things he found.' And she spoke to him in January. He reached out again to me just recently and this is where the story popped up and obviously bamboozled with. It wasn't really, you know, talking about Vanessa here. It was just a gotcha with Trump."
When asked whether she felt she was misled by Goldberg, Mayra Guillén replied "most definitely."
"Initially, when we first spoke, he did mention that this was going to be, again, a wrap-up of the four-year anniversary and how we passed legislation and all the achievements that were done in Vanessa's honor," Guillén said, adding that Goldberg did not tell her about the disparaging comments he planned to report about Trump and that he told her he expected to story to be published around April.
"I released a statement to him, letting him know that I was not happy about what he was going to release, and I did not wish to be a part of it anymore, or have my sister's name be a part of that article. And he still proceeded to not only publish it, but basically stain my sister's image with this, and it's very upsetting," she later said.
"This piece… was full of lies," Khawam said. "I myself spoke to him and I told him certain things. For a matter of fact, I said I could not speak about the issue about these things and not these things. And then he says, 'Natalie Khawam said this,' and that was not true. I mean, that's what really bothers me. I've worked with both sides of the aisle, with producers and reporters and the media for years, both sides of the aisle. I've never had to deal with somebody that just went that low below the belt just to get a story out. It was, quite honestly, it was wrong. It was unethical. And I had to take on that position of I'm gonna call him out."
In response to "The Ingraham Angle," The Atlantic issued a statement saying "Everyone should read this essential reporting in The Atlantic."
Goldberg also appeared to dismiss the criticism from Guillén, Khawam and others of his report, telling CNN "I don't make much of them at all."
"The sister wasn't in the meeting. The lawyer for the family wasn't in the meeting. Mark Meadows was in the meeting. Kash Patel was in the meeting. A whole bunch of senior officials were in the meeting. I have sources who were sitting in that meeting. I have contemporaneous notes taken by 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 consoling the family, Trump offered offered to provide financial assistance to cover the funeral costs. But Goldberg reported Trump became enraged when he got the bill, refusing to pay it, saying, "It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a f---ing Mexican!"
According to the report, Khawam told Goldberg the family did not receive money from Trump and that the costs were ultimately covered in part by the Army and donations.
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Both Mayra Guillén and Khawam took to social media to blast the report.
"Wow. I don’t appreciate how you are exploiting my sister’s death for politics- hurtful & disrespectful to the important changes she made for service members," Guillén wrote on X. "President Donald Trump did nothing but show respect to my family & Vanessa. In fact, I voted for President Trump today."
The report included on-the-record denials from Trump's then-chief of staff Mark Meadows and Kash Patel, the former chief of staff of then-Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, who allegedly were at the meeting.
Meadows spoke out against The Atlantic.
"I was in the discussions featured in the Atlantic’s latest hit piece against President Trump. Let me say this. Any suggestion that President Trump disparaged Ms. Guillen or refused to pay for her funeral expenses is absolutely false," Meadows wrote on X. "He was nothing but kind, gracious, and wanted to make sure that the military and the U.S. government did right by Vanessa Guillen and her family."
Ben Williamson, Meadow's spokesman, shared a screenshot of the statement he provided to Goldberg saying, "President Donald Trump absolutely did not say that," and called out how Goldberg "translated" that comment in the report, which said that Meadows "denied having heard Trump make the statement."
"Treat this dishonest piece accordingly," Williamson warned.