Mary Trump's Book Is Temporarily Blocked by New York Judge

A tell-all book about the Trump family by President Donald Trump’s niece has been temporarily blocked by a New York judge until at least July 10 after a lawsuit claimed it violated a 20-year-old secrecy agreement.

Justice Hal Greenwald in Poughkeepsie, New York, on Tuesday issued the temporary restraining order against Mary Trump and her publisher, Simon & Schuster. Mary Trump was ordered to explain by July 10 why the judge shouldn’t issue a longer-lasting injunction against the book sought by the president’s brother, Robert Trump, who filed the lawsuit.

The order bars Mary Trump and the publisher from distributing any version of the book or any portion of it “in any medium containing descriptions or accounts” of Mary Trump’s relationships with the president or his brother.

It comes shortly after the publication of a memoir by former national security adviser John Bolton, portions of which were widely released even after the Justice Department was fighting its publication in court.

According to the ruling, Greenwald held a hearing on the matter by Skype on Monday.

Charles Harder, one of the president’s lawyers, who is representing Robert Trump in the case, said in an emailed statement that he’s pleased with the decision and called Mary Trump’s attempt to publish the book “reprehensible.”

“We look forward to vigorously litigating this case, and will seek the maximum remedies available by law for the enormous damages caused by Mary Trump’s breach of contract and Simon & Schuster’s intentional interference with that contract,” Harder said. “Short of corrective action to immediately cease their egregious conduct, we will pursue this case to the very end.”

Simon & Schuster said in an email that it is “disappointed” by the order.

“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,” it said, referring to the barring of a book before publication.

The 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 include purported psychological observations about the author’s “toxic” family, according to the lawsuit.

It’s also expected to reveal her role as a primary source for the New York Times’s investigation into the president’s taxes, and to detail her claim that the family’s mistreatment of her father, Fred Trump Jr., contributed to his early death.

Mary Trump’s lawyer, Theodore Boutrous, has called the lawsuit a “baseless request to suppress a book of utmost public importance.”