Judge OK's release of tell-all book by Trump's niece
CGTN

The New York Supreme Court lifted a stay on Monday that temporarily blocked Donald Trump's niece from publishing a tell-all book that offers an unflattering portrait of the U.S. president and his family.

Justice Hal Greenwald of the state Supreme Court in Poughkeepsie, New York, denied the request to stop publication, and he canceled the temporary restraining order issued June 30 against Mary Trump and her publisher Simon & Schuster at the request of Robert Trump, the president's brother.

The combination photo shows the cover of the book (L), and a portrait of author Mary L. Trump, the niece of Donald J. Trump (Simon & Schuster, left, and Peter Serling/Simon & Schuster via AP)

The combination photo shows the cover of the book (L), and a portrait of author Mary L. Trump, the niece of Donald J. Trump (Simon & Schuster, left, and Peter Serling/Simon & Schuster via AP)

Following the ruling, Mary Trump make her first post since 2018 on Twitter, which said simply, "Happy Infrastructure Week."

Screenshot from Twitter

Screenshot from Twitter

Robert Trump has previously said the scheduled July 28 release of "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man" would violate a confidentiality agreement tied to the estate of his father Fred Trump Sr, who died in 1999. Mary Trump is Fred Trump's granddaughter. Based on the agreement, Mary Trump is blocked from talking about family members publicly.

The confidentiality agreement signed in 2001 isn't “as interesting now as it might have been two decades ago," the judge said. Viewed in the context of the current Trump family circumstances in 2020, the confidentiality clauses in the 2001 agreement offended public policy as a prior restraint on protected speech.

"On the other hand the non-confidential part of the agreement, the Trump family relationships may be more interesting now in 2020 with a presidential election on the horizon," the judge said.

U.S. President Donald Trump hosts an event celebrating law enforcement in the East Room of the White House, July 13, 2020. /Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump hosts an event celebrating law enforcement in the East Room of the White House, July 13, 2020. /Reuters

Mary Trump, a trained psychologist and Donald Trump's only niece, wrote in the book that she had "no problem calling Donald a narcissist – he meets all nine criteria as outlined in the 'Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.'"

The book was originally to be published at the end of July and has topped the Amazon bestseller list and attracted significant media coverage.

"The First Amendment forbids prior restraints because they are intolerable infringements on the right to participate in democracy," said Ted Boutrous, the renowned attorney who represented Mary Trump. "Tomorrow, the American public will be able to read Mary's important words for themselves."

(With input from agencies)