Trump's brother sues to block niece's book critical of president
WASHINGTON _ Donald Trump's brother sued to block publication of a book by their niece Mary Trump, saying portions of the memoir violate confidentiality provisions of a settlement reached among family members in a fight over money.
Robert S. Trump filed the complaint Tuesday in state court in Queens, New York, seeking an order permanently blocking publication on the grounds that the book will include extensive private information. The memoir purports to have an "insider's perspective" of "countless holiday meals" as well as family events and other potentially damaging information, according to a copy of the complaint.
The lawsuit was filed three days after a federal judge rejected the Trump administration's request for a court order blocking publication of a damning memoir about the president by his former national security advisor, John Bolton. The judge in that case said Bolton had put the nation's security at risk by publishing classified information but that too many advance copies had been sent out to justify an emergency order blocking publication.
Mary Trump's book, "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man," which is due to be published on July 28, will purportedly include psychological observations about her "toxic" family, according to the lawsuit. It's also expected to reveal her role as a primary source for the New York Times' investigation into the president's taxes.
Robert Trump claims details in the book are barred from publication by the 2001 global settlement over family disputes stemming from the wills of the president's parents, Fred and Mary, who died in 1999 and 2000, respectively. Mary Trump agreed as part of the deal to not "directly or indirectly publish or cause to be published any diary, memoir, letter, story, photograph, interview, article, essay, account or description or depiction of any kind whatsoever" about their relationships, according to the complaint.
The book's publisher, Simon & Schuster, which provided a copy of the lawsuit, was also named in the complaint.
Mary Trump's lawyer, Theodore Boutrous Jr., called the lawsuit a "brazen effort to squelch speech" in violation of the First Amendment.
_Bloomberg News
