Source: Simon and Schuster
President Donald Trump’s family is asking a court to block publication of an upcoming revealing book written by Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, her lawyer and publisher confirmed Tuesday.
The New York Times, citing a person familiar with the matter, first reported Tuesday afternoon that Trump’s brother Robert Trump sought a restraining order against Mary Trump and publisher Simon & Schuster in the Court of substitutes for Queens County in New York.
That’s the same court that handled the assets of the late father of the president’s real estate developer, Fred Trump Sr. Mary is the daughter of Fred Trump Jr., the president’s older brother.
President Trump has said that Mary Trump, 55, signed a confidentiality agreement when she resolved an estate-related court fight.
“He is not allowed to write a book,” Trump told the Axios news site last week.
The White House declined to comment for this article.
Mary’s book, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the Most Dangerous Man in the World,” will be published on July 28. Despite the fact that there are no physical copies available for sale yet, the book is number 5 on Amazon. list of bestsellers com as a result of pre-publication sales.
The Daily Beast previously reported on the existence of the confidentiality agreement and the expectation that Mary Trump would stand out in the book as the primary source for the Times Pulitzer Prize-winning series on President Trump’s finances.
The Times stories were based on tax returns from the President’s father, Fred Trump Sr., and other private family financial records.
Simon & Schuster on their website says that Mary Trump’s book is a “Revealing and authoritative portrait of Donald J. Trump and the toxic family that made him.”
Robert Trump told the Times in a statement Tuesday that he was “deeply disappointed” by his niece’s decision.
“His attempt to sensationalize and mischaracterize our family relationship after all these years for his own financial gain is both a parody and an injustice to the memory of my late brother, Fred, and our dear parents,” said Robert Trump.
Mary Trump’s attorney Theodore Boutrous, in a statement provided to CNBC, said: “President Trump and his brothers seek to delete a book that will discuss matters of utmost public importance.”
“They are chasing this illegal pre-restriction because they don’t want the public to know the truth. The courts will not tolerate this blatant violation of the First Amendment,” Boutrous said.
Simon & Schuster said in a statement: “As the plaintiff and his attorney well know, the courts have an unclear view of the prior restriction, and this attempt to block publication will have the same fate as the previous ones.”
“In Too much and never enough: how my family created the most dangerous man in the worldMary Trump has written a compelling personal story of global importance, and we look forward to helping her tell her story, “said the editor.
Several days ago, Trump lost a court battle to try to stop the publication of a memoir by his former national security adviser John Bolton.
Simon & Schuster is also the editor of Bolton’s book, “The Room Where It Happened.”
That book, which went on sale this week, is # 1 on Amazon’s bestseller list.
.
