Mary Trump’s book with the subtitle, “How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” is scheduled for publication two weeks earlier on July 14 after a court released the publisher from a restraining order. Mary Trump herself is still under the order. She said she is not bound by a nondisclosure agreement with the family because they misled her about the value of family holdings. (The Washington Post, July 6, 2020, by Michael Kranish)
A New York trial court found that while Mary Trump has free speech rights, she also had the power to sign a contract waiving those rights. They also said that time could erode the restrictions as the public interest in her writing could outweigh the contract, especially since the key figure in the family is now president. At the same time, the court said the publisher Simon & Schuster had never signed the nondisclosure agreement and was not Mary Trump’s agent so could not be limited under the wording in the nondisclosure agreement. (Cincinnati Enquirer, July 7, 2020, by Jack Greiner)
Mary Trump’s lawyer Ted Boutrous spoke on CNN arguing that the case is a part of a larger pattern of intimidation used by President Donald Trump to silence his critics and chill free speech. “It’s really an orchestrated campaign against freedom of speech and freedom of the press,” he said. (CNN, July 6)