Trump vs. the tell-alls

Mary Trump, President Trump’s niece, has a tell-all book about the president that’s supposed to be published later this summer. The president doesn’t want it to be published and he says Mary Trump signed a non-disclosure agreement as part of a settlement over the estate of Fred Trump (the president’s father and Mary Trump’s grandfather). So, President Trump’s brother Robert has been suing to stop the book’s publication and a trial judge in New York granted a temporary restraining order, saying the book can’t be published before he holds a hearing on Robert Trump’s request for an injunction. The book’s publisher is appealing that restraining order. So suppose Mary Trump really is bound by an NDA. What sort of relief would Robert Trump get? Might the book never come out? Would the other Trumps get damages? And why is Robert suing and not the president himself?

Then: Roger Stone was supposed to report to prison by June 30, but Long-Suffering Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson agreed to delay his report date due to the coronavirus pandemic and then delayed it again, but with a spin: she noted there aren’t any cases at the facility Stone will go to, but because Stone resides in a county with a spike in cases, Judge Jackson ordered him to stay confined to his home for the two weeks before his report date so that HE doesn’t bring the virus to the facility. The question remains: will President Trump pardon Roger Stone?

Plus: is Sidney Powell a good lawyer? And what about Jay Clayton, tapped to be the new head of the Southern District of New York — is he a good lawyer?