A company led by Donald Trump Jr. purchased northern Maine hunting land from the family of state Rep. Austin Theriault in a transaction that closed earlier this month.
The $1.39 million sale involved hundreds of acres in Crystal and Island Falls, though the exact amount is unclear in records on file at the Aroostook County Registry of Deeds. The son of President-elect Donald Trump is an avid hunter, and the area of the purchase is a prime one for moose, deer and bear hunting.
The sale gives the Trump family a foothold in Maine on the heels of the Nov. 5 election that returned its patriarch to the White House. The transaction is also notable because it involved the family of Theriault, a former NASCAR driver and Republican who had Trump’s endorsement when he narrowly lost this year to U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from the 2nd District.
The Maine land was purchased by a company formed in Florida earlier this month that includes Trump Jr. as one of its principals. He has hunted in the region before, shooting a bull moose in Stacyville on a 2022 hunt that was guided by a service based in Brownville.
The other two men listed on the filing are linked to Michael Liberty, a real estate developer who was pardoned by the elder Trump during the waning hours of his first presidency in 2021.
That pardon centered on Liberty’s earlier conviction for violating campaign finance laws by illegally contributing $22,500 to Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential bid, but it also helped to resolve a wire and securities fraud case that he was fighting in federal court in Portland.
Trump Jr.’s business also includes lawyer Anthony Fratianne, who works for the Liberty family, as well as Liberty’s son, George Liberty. The Trump Organization, that family’s main company, did not respond to emailed questions sent late Monday.
Fratianne told Newsweek earlier this month that the Florida company was formed to hold a hunting camp in northern Maine, a likely reference to the land purchased from the Theriaults.
The land was owned by TNT Holdings LP, a Fort Kent company owned by Steve Theriault, the father of the Maine lawmaker. The family is in the logging and trucking business and owns land throughout Aroostook County.
In a statement released by a campaign spokesperson for his son, Steve Theriault said his family worked with the Trump family for more than a year on the sale. The campaign did not answer a question about whether Austin Theriault was involved in the deal.
“We hope that their wonderful family will build many happy memories in this special place, just like our family has been fortunate to do,” Steve Theriault said of the Trumps.
