The Thursday ruling by Judge Peter Kelly at the Queens County Surrogate’s Court came just a few days after Robert Trump, the president’s younger brother, filed a legal claim stating that Mary Trump would be violating a nondisclosure agreement if her book were published.
According to the court’s ruling, “Robert claims such publication [of the book] would be violative of the terms of a nondisclosure/confidentiality agreement contained in a stipulation of [a] settlement signed by Robert, his siblings Donald and Mary, as well as the respondent and her brother Fred.”
However, the ruling adds that Robert Trump’s “submissions suffer from several improprieties.”
According to a Wednesday report by the Daily Beast, Robert Trump filed the lawsuit just days after being discharged from Mount Sinai Hospital’s neurosciences intensive care unit for a serious condition.
“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,” Theodore Boutrous, Mary Trump’s lawyer, tweeted Thursday.
“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.”
Although the book is scheduled to be published on July 28, the president has claimed that his niece is “not allowed to write a book,” as she is bound by a “very powerful” nondisclosure agreement.
The book is expected to discuss family dynamics and reveal information about a younger Donald Trump. In addition, Mary Trump is expected to shed light how she was allegedly the main source behind the 2018 blockbuster New York Times piece on the president’s taxes.
On its website, the book’s publisher Simon & Schuster describes it as a “revelatory, authoritative portrait of Donald J. Trump and the toxic family that made him.”
