The president’s family is asking a New York City surrogate court to halt the publication of Mary Trump’s upcoming book, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, which promises to reveal damaging secrets about President Donald Trump, the New York Times reported Tuesday.
A person familiar with the matter told the Times that a request for a temporary restraining order (TRO) was filed on Tuesday by Robert Trump, the president’s younger brother. The request was filed against Mary Trump and publisher Simon & Schuster in Queens County Surrogate’s Court, where the estate of the president’s father was settled.
Echoing claims already made by President Trump, the TRO claims that publication of the book would violate the non-disclosure agreement Mary Trump signed in 2001 concerning the settlement of Fred Trump’s estate.
The book, which is slated to be released July 28, is described on Simon & Schuster’s website as a “revelatory, authoritative portrait of Donald J. Trump and the toxic family that made him.”
“Mary L. Trump, a trained clinical psychologist and Donald’s only niece, shines 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,” the description goes on.
Then there’s this:
Numerous pundits, armchair psychologists, and journalists have sought to parse Donald J. Trump’s lethal flaws. Mary L. Trump has the education, insight, and intimate familiarity needed to reveal what makes Donald, and the rest of her clan, tick. She alone can recount this fascinating, unnerving saga, not just because of her insider’s perspective but also because she is the only Trump willing to tell the truth about one of the world’s most powerful and dysfunctional families.
Ted Boutrous, who has represented CNN in legal action against the White House, is one of the attorneys representing Mary Trump in the matter. He told the Times that the president and his family were attempting to “suppress a book that will discuss matters of utmost public importance.”
“They are pursuing this unlawful prior restraint because they do not want the public to know the truth,” Boutrouse said in a statement, adding that “The courts will not tolerate this brazen violation of the First Amendment.”
In a statement to the Times, Robert Trump said he was “deeply disappointed” in the decision to move forward with publication of the tell-all book, calling Mary Trump “a disgrace.”
“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,” he said. “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.”
According to the report, the Trump family is attempting to get in front of the matter by seeking a TRO before the book is physically printed and shipped to retailers. As such, the family is apparently hoping to avoid repeating the DOJ’s mistakes in the John Bolton case. In an eleventh-hour move, DOJ sought a TRO mere days before Bolton’s book was set to be published but after the book had already been shipped to distributors, journalists and bookstores.
[image via Erin Schaff-Pool_Getty Images]
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