Not in my court. That was the message from Queens County (N.Y.) Surrogate's Court judge Peter Kelly, who on Thursday swiftly dismissed a June 23 motion by President Donald J. Trump's brother, Robert S. Trump, that sought to block the publication of Mary L. Trump's forthcoming tell-all Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.
In a four-page order, the court held that Trump's bid to block his niece's memoir suffered from a number of fatal defects, but most prominently, it was in the wrong venue. "The mere fact that the terms of the agreement alleged to be violated are contained in the stipulation of settlement arrived at during a probate contest is not enough, standing alone, to empower this court to obtain jurisdiction," Kelly wrote, explaining that the plain text of the agreement limits the jurisdiction of the Surrogate's Court to the distribution of the estate.
The Trump family's motion to block publication, which also names the book's publisher, Simon & Schuster, is based on a sweeping confidentiality clause agreed to in 2001, when the estate of the president’s father, Fred Trump Sr., was settled.
The dismissal may not be the end of the legal road, however, as Trump family attorneys are likely to bring suit in a proper venue, a fact alluded to in a statement Thursday by Simon & Schuster officials, who expressed confidence that the publisher would prevail "should there be further efforts to stifle this publication."
On the Simon & Schuster website, the book is described as a “revelatory, authoritative portrait of Donald J. Trump and the toxic family that made him.” Mary L. Trump is billed as a trained clinical psychologist as well as the president’s only niece. The book is scheduled for a July 28 publication.
