Lawyers for the Trump family argue that this confidentiality clause effectively gives them an ‘approval right’ over Mary Trump’s book manuscript.
Catching up with PW's Andrew Albanese
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Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man is touted by publisher Simon & Schuster as a “revelatory, authoritative portrait of Donald J. Trump and the toxic family that made him. Mary L. Trump, a trained clinical psychologist and Donald’s only niece, shines a bright light on the dark history of their family in order to explain how her uncle became the man who now threatens the world’s health, economic security, and social fabric.”
On Monday, the president’s brother Robert S. Trump filed suit on the family’s behalf in Queens County (NY) Surrogate’s Court to block the book’s release, reports Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer.
“The action arises from a sweeping confidentiality clause agreed to in 2001, when the estate of the president’s father, Fred Trump Sr., was settled,” he explains.
“According to documents included with the filing, the text of the broad confidentiality clause bars the parties and their agents, including Mary L. Trump, from ‘directly or indirectly’ publishing or causing to be published – well, anything – about the Trump family.
“Lawyers for the Trump family argue that this confidentiality clause effectively gives them an ‘approval right’ over Mary Trump’s manuscript, and allows them to restrain publication to prevent irreparable injury,” Albanese tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally.
“And because the agreement also binds ‘agents,’ Trump family attorneys argue, Simon & Schuster is also ‘properly bound’ by any injunction.”
Late on Thursday, however, a day after it was filed, Surrogate’s Court Judge Peter Kelly dismissed the suit.
“He said, ‘Not in my court,’ pointing out that the motion suffered from a number of fatal defects, but most prominently, that it was in the wrong venue. The plain text of the agreement limits the jurisdiction of the Surrogate’s Court to the distribution of the Trump estate,” Albanese notes.
Every Friday, CCC’s “Beyond the Book” speaks with the editors and reporters of “Publishers Weekly” for an early look at the news that publishers, editors, authors, agents and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.
