Mary Trump pushes to remove hold in book fight

Mary Trump, the niece of President Trump who is trying to release a tell-all book about their family, submitted an affidavit on Thursday in an attempt to remove a temporary restraining order against her over the memoir’s publication.

Earlier this week a judge granted the president’s brother, Robert Trump – Mary Trump’s other uncle – a temporary restraining order against Mary Trump and Simon & Schuster, the publisher releasing her book, “Too Much And Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.”

A New York appeals court promptly threw the order out against the publisher, clearing the way for it to distribute the book, though the order still applies to Mary Trump. The book, which has been scheduled for release July 28, is at the top of Amazon’s best-seller list.

In the affidavit, Mary Trump argues that she “never believed” a non-disclosure agreement she signed in the early 2000s regarding a dispute over her grandfather’s will “could possibly restrict me from telling the story of my life or publishing a book discussing anything contained in the Book, including the conduct and character of my uncle, the sitting President of the United States.”

She argued that the agreement should not hold up, asserting that when she signed it in 2001 she believed the asset amounts were accurate, but learned after a New York Times expose in 2018 that they were “fraudulent.”

Mary Trump added that the president and other members of the family have spoken publicly about the dispute before, but never “sought my permission to speak publicly about our family or their personal relationships with me, my brother Fred, or among each other.”

In an adjacent motion, Mary Trump’s lawyers evoked the First Amendment as reasoning that Robert Trump’s restraining order should be lifted against his niece.

“The First Amendment, ordinary rules of contract law, and bedrock equitable principles defeat Plaintiff’s extraordinary and unwarranted request for injunctive relief,” Mary Trump’s counsel wrote.

“The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution forbids prior restraints against the publication of books, especially books comprising core political speech relating to a sitting president running for reelection.”