Judge Hal Greenwald of the Dutchess County Supreme Court in upstate New York on Tuesday barred Mary Trump and publisher Simon & Schuster from releasing the book, which is slated to hit shelves on July 28. The book, written by the daughter of Fred Trump Jr., the president’s deceased older brother, is already charting at number four on Amazon’s best-seller list.
“Pending the hearing and determination of Petitioner Robert S. Trump’s within motion for a preliminary injunction, Mary L. Trump and Simon & Schuster, Inc., together with their respective members, officers, employees, servants, agents, attorneys, representatives and all other persons acting on behalf of or in concert with either or both of them, are hereby temporarily enjoined and restrained, pursuant to CPLR 6313, from publishing, printing or distributing any book or any portions thereof including but not limited to the book entitled: ‘Too Much and Never Enough, How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man’, in any medium containing descriptions or accounts of Mary L. Trump’s relationship with Robert S. Trump, Donald Trump, or Maryanne Trump Barry,” Greenwald ordered, the Daily Beast reported.
This is not the first time Robert Trump and his attorney Charles Harder have tried to block the book. On May 25, Judge Peter Kelly of the Queens County Surrogate’s Court in New York rejected Robert Trump’s attempt to prevent the tell-all’s publication, saying that his filings “suffer from several improprieties.”
Harder applauded the Tuesday decision, noting that “Robert Trump is very pleased with the New York Supreme Court’s injunction against Mary Trump and Simon & Schuster” and adding that “the actions of Mary Trump and Simon & Schuster are truly reprehensible,” the Daily Beast reported.
In a statement to the Daily Beast, Mary Trump’s attorney, Theodore Boutrous Jr., said that the court’s restraining order violates the First Amendment.
“The trial court’s temporary restraining order is only temporary but it still is a prior restraint on core political speech that flatly violates the First Amendment. We will immediately appeal,” Boutrous said.
Adam Rothberg, a spokesperson for Simon & Schuster, also expressed disappointment in the court’s decision.
“We plan to immediately appeal this decision to the Appellate Division, and look forward to prevailing in this case based on well-established precedents regarding prior restraint,” he said.
The salacious book is expected to discuss family dynamics and reveal embarrassing information about the first family. It is also expected to include claims by Mary Trump that she was the main source behind a 2018 New York Times piece on the president’s taxes.
Donald and Robert Trump have both claimed that Mary Trump would be violating a nondisclosure agreement if her book were published.
In an interview with Axios on June 22, the president claimed that Mary Trump is “not allowed to write a book.”
“You know, when we settled with her and her brother, who I do have a good relationship with — she's got a brother, Fred [Trump], who I do have a good relationship with, but when we settled, she has a total ... signed a nondisclosure,” he said in the interview.
"I have a brother, Robert, very good guy, and he's — he's very angry about it," the president added. "But she signed a nondisclosure agreement, and she's obviously not honoring it if she writes a book. It's too bad.”