The Trump family has gone to court to block the publication of a tell-all book on Donald Trump penned by the president’s niece, Mary Trump, local media reported. Robert Trump, Donald Trump’s youngest brother, filed for a temporary restraining order against Mary Trump in Queens Surrogate's Court. The document says Mary Trump, 55, is violating the nondisclosure agreement related to the settlement of the estate of Fred Trump Senior, the president’s father. Robert Trump said he was "deeply disappointed" with his niece’s decision to write the book.
"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", Robert Trump, Donald Trump’s younger brother said in a statement.
According to the website of the book’s publisher Simon & Schuster, the exposé titled "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man" will describe a "nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse" and will shine "a bright light on the dark history of their family in order to explain how her uncle became the man who now threatens the world’s health, economic security, and social fabric".
Commenting on the restraining order, Ted Boutros, a lawyer for Mary Trump, claimed the president and his family were trying to suppress a book that discusses matters of utmost importance. "They are pursuing this unlawful prior restraint because they do not want the public to know the truth. The courts will not tolerate this brazen violation of the First Amendment", Ted Boutros said in a statement Tuesday.
The president himself weighed in on the book on Monday, saying his niece was not allowed to write the book because of a "very powerful" nondisclosure agreement that covers "everything".
"You know, when we settled with her and her brother, who I do have a good relationship with — she's got a brother, Fred, who I do have a good relationship with — but when we settled, she has a total … signed a nondisclosure", Trump said in an interview with Axios.
The settlement the president refers to is the court battle between Mary Trump and Fred Trump III and the rest of the Trump family. It began following the death of Fred Trump Senior in 1999, who cut out the children of Fred Trump Jr, Donald Trump’s elder brother, who died in 1981, from his will. Mary Trump and Fred Trump III filed a lawsuit against the rest of the family, in which they claimed that Donald Trump and his other siblings made Fred Trump Senior change his will.
In her memoir, Mary Trump also alleged that Donald Trump "dismissed and derided" his father when he began suffering from Alzheimer’s disease during the last six years of his life, a claim the president vehemently denied.
As for the release of the book, its publisher Simon & Schuster, which just recently released another exposé on the president penned by former national security adviser John Bolton that the president also tried to prevent, predicted that the court battle would do little to stop the book’s release, which is scheduled for 28 July.
