Maryanne Trump Barry, Donald Trump’s older sister, dies at the age of 86

Maryanne Trump Barry, a former federal judge who was an older sister of Donald J. Trump and was both his protector and critic throughout their lives, has died. She was 86.

Ms. Barry died at her home on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, according to two people familiar with the matter. One of them said she was found early Monday morning. Neither person provided a cause.

Ms. Barry, the widow of John Barry, a veteran trial and appellate lawyer, had been a federal judge in New Jersey, a position that would have helped Mr. Trump’s fixer, the lawyer Roy M. Cohn, reach her during President Ronald . Reagan’s tenure. She retired in 2019, at a time when questions arose following a New York Times investigation into the family’s tax practices.

According to confidantes, Trump seemed to obey the words of few people as much as those of his sister. But they suffered a significant rift in their relationship in the final year of his presidency, when their niece Mary L. Trump, who was promoting a memoir about their family, released audio recordings of her aunt speaking critically of the president.

The 77-year-old Trump, who is the front-runner for the Republican presidential nominee even as he faces dozens of criminal charges in four cases, has suffered a number of personal losses in recent years.

His younger brother, Robert S. Trump, died in 2020, and the president held a funeral service for him at the White House. His first wife, Ivana Trump, died in 2022.

A spokesman for Mr. Trump did not respond to a request for comment.

This article will be updated.