Judge won’t stop family Trump book
A Queens judge has tossed a legal effort by President Trump’s younger brother to block a tell-all book by the president’s estranged niece — though the legal battle will almost certainly continue in a different court.
Justice Peter Kelly wrote that Queens Surrogate’s Court was not the proper forum for the fight over the book due out July 28.
“This controversy is a dispute regarding private rights and obligations which fall outside the parameters of … the Surrogate’s Court,” Kelly wrote.
Trump’s younger brother, Robert Trump, was represented by attorney Charles Harder.
Harder, who has represented President Trump in legal battles with the press, vowed to refile the lawsuit.
“Surrogate’s Court ruled that it does not have jurisdiction over the dispute. Therefore, Robert Trump will proceed with filing a new lawsuit in the Supreme Court of New York,” Harder said.
Harder had argued the book, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” violated a nondisclosure agreement related to the settlement of the estate of Fred Trump, the family’s patriarch and Donald Trump’s father.
“The court has promptly and correctly held that it lacks jurisdiction to grant the Trump family’s baseless request to suppress a book of utmost public importance. We hope this decision will end the matter. Democracy thrives on the free exchange of ideas, and neither this court nor any other has authority to violate the Constitution by imposing a prior restraint on core political speech,” said attorney Ted Boutrous, who is representing Mary Trump (photo).
The family was united against Mary Trump. Even her own brother, Fred Trump III, distanced himself from the book.