A family lawyer and Vanessa Guillen's sister Mayra Guillen rejected a report from The Atlantic on Tuesday that claimed that former President Donald Trump refused to pay for the army specialist's funeral and made negative comments about her ethnicity.
The article, written by editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, claims that during a meeting in December 2020, Trump was angry about a $60,000 bill from Guillen's family for her funeral. Trump allegedly told his aides:
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"It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a f—king Mexican."
According to Goldberg, Trump then told his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, 'Don’t pay it!' even after he had previously promised to help with Vanessa Guillen's funeral costs.
How did Vanessa Guillen's sister respond to the article?
Mayra Guillen, Vanessa's sister rejected all claims of The Atlantic report and called it 'hurtful and disrespectful'. In a tweet, she said:
"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. President Donald Trump did nothing but show respect to my family & Vanessa. In fact, I voted for President Trump today."
Natalie Khawam, the lawyer for the Guillen family also condemned Jeffrey Goldberg's report and said:
"After having dealt with hundreds of reporters in my legal career, this is unfortunately the first time I have to go on record and call out Jeffrey Goldberg@the Atlantic: not only did he misrepresent our conversation but he outright LIED in HIS sensational story. More importantly, he used and exploited my clients, and Vanessa Guillen’s murder… for cheap political gain."
Natalie continued by questioning the timing of this 'story', noting that it seems suspicious since it claims Trump had this conversation over four years ago. She noted that Trump supported the military and even invited Mayra Guillen to the Oval Office, also backing the I Am Vanessa Guillen bill.
She also expressed gratitude for the bipartisan support of the I Am Vanessa Guillen Act, stating that because of everyone’s hard work, service members now have better protections and rights while serving.
In the piece, The Atlantic also claims that:
“She (Khawam) sent the bill [for Vanessa’s funeral] to the White House, but no money was ever received by the family from Trump.”
In her tweet, Natalie Khawam has rejected these claims by saying:
“Any suggestion that President Trump disparaged Ms. Guillen or refused to pay for her funeral expenses is absolutely false... 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.”
Who was Vanessa Guillen?
Vanessa Guillen was a U.S. Army specialist who was murdered in April 2020 at Fort Hood, Texas. Her case gained significant media attention and public outcry, particularly regarding issues of sexual harassment and violence within the military.
Guillen had reported experiencing harassment before her death, and her family fought for justice and increased protections for service members. The I Am Vanessa Guillen Act, which was passed in her honor aims to improve reporting and response to sexual harassment and assault in the military.
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