Bad News for Trump on His Niece's Tell-All

Judge reverses lower court's order
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 2, 2020 12:04 AM CDT
Updated Jul 2, 2020 6:30 AM CDT
A Reversal on the Mary Trump Book Ruling
In this Nov. 3, 1999 file photo, Robert Trump, left, joins real estate developer and presidential hopeful Donald Trump at an event in New York.   (AP Photo/Diane Bonadreff, File)

A New York judge's order blocking Mary Trump's upcoming tell-all stood for just one day before an appellate judge in the state reversed it. The latest judge ruled Wednesday that Simon & Schuster can move forward with plans to release the memoir by President Trump's niece, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, on July 28, the New York Times reports. At issue is whether Mary Trump is in violation of a nondisclosure agreement she signed decades ago when settling a legal battle over her grandfather Fred Trump Sr.'s will; that's the basis for the Trump family's legal attempts to block her book. But the judge, Alan D. Scheinkman, did not address that central question. Rather, he found that the publisher was not bound by that confidentiality agreement, signed by Mary Trump, her uncle Donald, and his two living siblings, Robert Trump and Maryanne Trump Barry. (Mary Trump's father, Fred Trump Jr., died before his father did.)

“Unlike Ms. Trump, S&S has not agreed to surrender or relinquish any of its First Amendment rights,” the justice wrote. He added, of the NDA itself, that things have changed a bit in the years since it was signed: “The legitimate interest in preserving family secrets may be one thing for the family of a real estate developer, no matter how successful,” he wrote. “It is another matter for the family of the president of the United States.” To rule on that issue, he said he might need to review the book himself. Mary Trump's lawyer plans to formally appeal the lower court's ruling Thursday, and says the same result vacating prior restraint must be applied to Trump herself. Scheinkman left the temporary restraining order against her in place while lifting the one on the publisher, and the matter will next be addressed at a hearing July 10, CNN reports. But he indicated the matter might better be solved with financial damages, rather than a court blocking the book. (More Mary Trump stories.)

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