An attempt to block publication of a book claiming to tell the inside story of the Trump family by the US president’s niece has been dismissed by a court in New York.
Queens county surrogate court judge Peter Kelly said on Thursday “several improprieties” in the filing by Robert Trump, the president’s younger brother, meant the bid to stop the book was “fatally defective”.
The suit concerned a non-disclosure agreement Mary Trump signed in 2001, relating to litigation over family patriarch Fred Trump’s will. Kelly said that matter was closed, and thus the attempt to block the book could not be pursued in his court.
Ted Boutros, an attorney for Mary Trump, said in a statement: “The court has promptly and correctly held that it lacks jurisdiction to grant the Trump family’s baseless request to suppress a book of utmost public importance and concern.
“We hope this decision will end the matter. Democracy thrives on the free exchange of ideas, and neither this court nor any other has authority to violate the constitution by imposing a prior restraint on core political speech.”
But there seems little doubt it will not end the matter as Kelly suggested the Trump family might try to block the book in New York supreme court.
Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man is due out on 28 July.
According to publisher Simon & Schuster – also behind John Bolton’s tell-all which a federal judge declined to block last week – Mary Trump, a trained clinical psychologist, will “offer a “revelatory, authoritative portrait of Donald J Trump and the toxic family that made him”.
The publisher also promises “a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse”.
Mary Trump has expressed opposition to her uncle on Twitter and was reportedly a key source for the New York Times’ Pulitzer-winning reporting on Trump family tax affairs.
In an interview with the news site Axios last week, Donald Trump said: “She’s not allowed to write a book. You know, when we settled with her and her brother, who I do have a good relationship with … she … signed a nondisclosure.”
On Thursday, Mary Trump’s brother told the Daily Mail he believed his sister should not be allowed to publish.
In a statement, which the Mail said was provided by Eric Trump, the president’s second son, Fred Trump III said: “At the time that our lawsuit with the family was resolved, Mary and I had each received a generous financial settlement from the family and were more than willing to agree to execute non-disclosure provisions … in my opinion, those provisions of the 2001 settlement agreement are still in effect and binding today.”
Mary Trump and Fred Trump III are the children of Fred Trump Jr, the president’s older brother who left the family business and died of heart problems arising from alcoholism in 1981, at the age of 42.
Donald Trump has three surviving siblings: Robert Trump, a businessman; Maryanne Trump Barry, a retired judge; and Elizabeth Trump Grau, a retired banker. It was reported that Robert Trump, 72, spent 10 days in intensive care before filing his attempt to stop his niece.
In a statement to the New York Times after he left hospital, the businessman said: “Her attempt to sensationalize and mischaracterize our family relationship after all of these years for her own financial gain is both a travesty and injustice to the memory of my late brother, Fred, and our beloved parents.”
“I and the rest of my entire family are so proud of my wonderful brother, the president, and feel that Mary’s actions are truly a disgrace.”
