New York judge allows Trump niece to promote new family memoir ahead of Tuesday release News
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New York judge allows Trump niece to promote new family memoir ahead of Tuesday release

A New York judge Monday vacated a retraining order against Mary Trump, the niece of President Donald Trump, allowing her to promote her new memoir about the Trump family.

Robert Trump, brother of Donald Trump, had filed for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Mary Trump upon hearing his niece’s plans to publish a memoir discussing the Trump family’s relationships. He argued that it violated a confidentiality agreement related to Mary’s father, Fred Trump’s estate. Two weeks ago a judge in Dutchess County, New York, issued a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order. Part of that order against publisher Simon & Schuster (S&S) was subsequently overturned by a New York appellate judge a few days later.

In Monday’s order, the court vacated the remaining TRO against Mary Trump, finding that the underlying nondisclosure agreement signed in 2001 was not specific enough to prevent her from speaking about the Trump family relationship or her new book. The court said that the agreement had “too many words, with too many meanings,” and that “The cost of the litigation that was settled should have been finalized with more specifics, more clarity, if the current situation was even comprehended, at the time the Agreement was signed.”

The court also denied an attempt to enjoin the publisher, deciding that “the mere fact that S&S entered into a publishing agreement to publish Mary L. Trump’s memoir—does not establish agent-principal relationship.”

The book has already garnered widespread media attention ahead of its scheduled release Tuesday and has become the #1 best selling book on Amazon. It also allegedly contains many scandalous accusations, including that President Trump paid someone to take his college entrance exams.

Mary Trump has not yet commented on the ruling. She did, however, take to Twitter for the first time in almost two years Monday, tweeting “Happy Infrastructure Week,” an expression the Trump administration has been accused of repeating when trying to distract from controversies.

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany has insisted that the memoir is a “book of falsehoods” and has “ridiculous, absurd allegations that have absolutely no bearing in truth.”