Trumps suffer shattering loss in bid to stop niece Mary's tell-all book, judge says demand 'fatally defective'
President Donald Trump's family has lost its attempt to stop his niece Mary Trump from publishing her tell-all book about them. A judge at the Queen's Surrogate's Court in New York, on Thursday, June 25, ruled their application of a restraining order against her as "fatally defective" and dismissed the document.
Judge Peter J Kelly, in his ruling, said that his court was the wrong jurisdiction and that they are to approach the Supreme Court in an effort to block May's bombshell book. The ruling has come as another embarrassing blow to the Trumps after they had to refile their application because they didn't pay the $45 fee, according to the Daily Mail.
Judge Kelly, in his four-page ruling, stated: "At the outset, the court finds that the submissions suffer from several improprieties. To the extent the accompanying petition is supposed to provide the jurisdictional basis for said motion (the injunction), it cannot do so as that petition is fatally defective."
Judge Kelly also added that he would have accepted jurisdiction in the case if the Trump family's application affected Fred Sr's probate matters. However, he added: "It cannot be successfully argued that this dispute affects the administration of the decedent's estate. The irrefutable conclusion is, regardless of the outcome of the matter, the administration of this estate will not be impacted one iota."
Earlier, the Trumps had claimed that if Mary is allowed to publish her tell-all book about the family, "no amount of monetary damages can ameliorate the loss." The Trumps, in their application for a temporary restraining order, said that the family would suffer "irreparable harm" if the book is released next month as scheduled.
The Trump family had reportedly argued that Mary, in 2001, had agreed to not write a memoir under terms of a settlement that resolved a family dispute over the patriarch Fred Trump Sr's estate, according to the Daily Mail. The settlement agreement reportedly stated that considering Donald Trump is famous and his sister Maryanne is a federal judge, "the family made the decision collectively to enter into an agreement that would maintain the confidentiality of the family's private matters."
Shortly after Mary, 55, announced the release of her bombshell tell-all book, the Trumps asked a judge in Queens, New York to issue a temporary restraining order against the author and to set a hearing for July 31. The application reportedly talks of a First Amendment clash with Mary and her publishers Simon & Schuster. Mary's book is titled 'Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man'. The book's blurb describes a "nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse."
The Trump family lawyer, Theodore Boutrous, in a statement said that the Trumps are "pursuing this 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."
The application requested unspecified damages and noted: 'No amount of monetary damages can ameliorate the loss that will be suffered if Mary Trump is allowed to violate the settlement agreement and publish'.
Mary is President Trump's older brother Fred Trump Jr's daughter. Fred died at the age of 42 in 1982 after battling alcoholism. Years later in 1999, when Fred Sr died, Mary and her brother Fred Trump III challenged his will, claiming that the Trump family used undue influence to cut them out of it. Mary, in a lawsuit, claimed that the Trumps ended the healthcare for her side of the family in retaliation. The Trumps, however, in their application for the restraining order, have stated that everything was resolved with them under a "global" agreement in 2001.
"Confidentiality was at the essence of the settlement agreement," the application stated. "Fred Trump Sr had been a famous figure in New York real estate. Fred's son Donald also had become a famous real estate developer. Fred's daughter, Judge Barry, was a judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The court cases involving Fred Trump Sr's will had received extensive publicity and the family made the decision collectively to enter into an agreement that would maintain the confidentiality of the family's private matters." The restraining order application also noted that Mary received a "substantial" amount of money.
According to a part of the agreement, Mary agreed to not "directly or indirectly publish or cause to be published any diary, memoir, letter, story, photograph, interview, article, essay, account or description or deficient of any kind whatsoever, whether fictionalized or not, concerning their litigation with (the Trumps) or assist or provide information to others in connection therewith," the application added.
Mary could only reveal any information after consent from Donald, Maryanne and their brother Robert.