The Trump family may soon face yet another tell-all book revealing some of the corruption and toxicity that they might like to keep hidden. On July 28, President Donald Trump’s niece Mary is scheduled to have her book released called Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, which has been described as revealing some of the background of the current president. Mary Trump, notably enough, is a trained clinical psychologist, suggesting that she has some especially poignant insight. Now, the Trump family has rushed to court to try and block the publication of Mary’s book, according to news outlets including NBC.
Ted Boutrous, who serves as a lawyer for Mary Trump, explained:
‘President Trump and his siblings are seeking 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. The courts will not tolerate this brazen violation of the First Amendment.’
There they go again: the Trumps trying to shred the 1st amendment to silence their own, via @maggieNYT.
Also good luck going up against @BoutrousTed in a prior restraint case.
I mean, seriously, what are they thinking. https://t.co/IFjkSfy4nq
— Steven Mazie (@stevenmazie) June 24, 2020
In fact, Simon & Schuster — the publisher slated to release Mary Trump’s book to the world in July — has some very recent successes in getting material out that the Trump team wanted to keep hidden. They are the publisher who recently released the new memoir from Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, which the Trump administration had gone to court to try and stop.
Simon & Schuster issued a pointed statement, reading:
‘As the plaintiff and his attorney well know, the courts take a dim view of prior restraint, and this attempt to block publication will meet the same fate as those that have gone before.’
As explained by NBC, which summarizes reporting from The New York Times, the president’s younger brother, Robert Trump, has “filed for a temporary restraining order against Mary Trump in Queens Surrogate’s Court, which handles will disputes.” Allegedly, Mary Trump and her brother, Fred Trump III, signed a nondisclosure agreement as part of the settlement of a dispute over the will of Mary Trump’s father, Fred Trump, Jr., who was the president’s brother and died in 1984. It’s amazing that the Trumps are such an apparent wreck behind the scenes that they got their own family members to sign nondisclosure agreements.
Although it’s unclear what precise role the president himself has in the proceedings, he did complain about Mary’s planned book in a recent interview with Axios. Referring to his niece, he claimed:
‘She’s 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, who I do have a good relationship with — but when we settled, she has a total … signed a nondisclosure. It covers everything.’
Perhaps the president would be a bit more convincing if he didn’t speak in word salad.
EXCLUSIVE: The president’s niece Mary Trump is set to publish a tell-all this summer—and to reveal that she was a primary source for The New York Times’ investigation into Trump’s taxes. https://t.co/TPTS8DNDCP
— Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) June 15, 2020
Reportedly, this book is not the first time that Mary Trump has worked to reveal details of the Trump family’s corruption — she was also a source for a bombshell New York Times story about Trump family tax issues.
The cover of Mary Trump’s forthcoming book. pic.twitter.com/X4RrbU0OHQ
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) June 16, 2020