Donald Trump's niece free to discuss explosive family book, judge rules

Donald Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, has been released from a temporary restraining order and is free to discuss her book about the president, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.

Related: Top Mueller lawyer to publish insider account of Trump-Russia investigation

A judge in New York state supreme court issued his ruling on Monday, a day ahead of the book’s publication.

Publisher Simon & Schuster was originally included in the temporary restraining order won by Robert Trump, the president’s brother, but subsequently dropped.

Publication was brought forward by two weeks and details of the book published by media outlets including the Guardian. The author’s accounts of Trump’s behaviour and background created a huge splash across world media.

In 2001, Mary Trump was a party to a settlement and non-disclosure agreement arising from litigation over the will of Fred Trump, the president’s father. Donald Trump, Robert Trump and their sister Maryanne Trump Barry, a retired judge, were also party to the deal.

In her acknowledgments, Mary Trump thanks her aunt “for all of the enlightening information”.

Trump claimed that agreement meant his niece could not publish the book, which the White House has dismissed as filled with “falsehoods”. In a tweet on Monday night the president’s second son, Eric Trump, said he agreed with a New York Post columnist who called his cousin “a zero … scratching for 10 minutes of fame [and] drawing blood to make money”.

Theodore J Boutrous Jr, an attorney for Mary Trump, said: “The court got it right in rejecting the Trump family’s effort to squelch Mary Trump’s core political speech on important issues of public concern. Tomorrow, the American public will be able to read Mary’s important words for themselves.”

On Monday night, Mary Trump tweeted for the first time since August 2018. Referencing a common joke about the Trump administration’s inability to concentrate on policy priorities, she wrote: “Happy Infrastructure Week.”

Books about Trump and his administration – both critical of the president and in his praise – have proved extremely profitable. Mary Trump’s book has surpassed The Room Where It Happened, former national security adviser John Bolton’s White House memoir, at the top of Amazon’s sales rankings.

On Monday it was announced that Andrew Weissmann, a top prosecutor under special counsel Robert Mueller, will publish a book on the Russia investigation.

Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation will be published by Random House on 29 September.