Schwartz spent 18 months of his life ghostwriting "Trump: The Art of the Deal" (1987) and was one of the very few authors who was not asked to sign a confidentiality agreement, a clause that effectively muzzled subsequent Trump biographers. In July 2016, however, Schwartz received a "Cease and Desist" notice from Trump's lawyers instructing him to return, retroactively, all the royalty payments received from the book.
