Washington, Jan 5 (Just News): Michael Wolff's book on the Trump White House, which is out next week, contains some remarkable assertions, some of which have been published in an excerpt appearing in New York Magazine Thursday -- about the opinion Donald Trump held of his own presidential campaign, the sense in his own social circles of "his wide-ranging ignorance," the broad dysfunction and infighting in the White House, as well as some of the unusual habits he's developed, and a couple of interesting anecdotes concerning his daughter, Ivanka Trump, who is a close adviser to the president.
Asked by reporters Wednesday about President Trump's reaction to the book, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said, "I think, furious, disgusted, would probably certainly fit when you make such outrageous claims and completely false claims against the president and his family."
President Trump’s lawyer sent a cease-and-desist letter Thursday to the publisher of an upcoming book that gives an unflattering portrayal of the president and his team, as the White House and its allies again pushed back aggressively against former adviser Steve Bannon and the book’s author.
Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Charles Harder, sent a cease-and-desist letter Thursday to the publisher of “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” and to author Michael Wolff.
“We are investigating numerous false and/or baseless statements that you have made about Mr. Trump,” the lawyer wrote to Mr. Wolff. The letters also states that the legal team is looking into possible defamation of Mr. Trump and his family and invasion of privacy.
The letter to Mr. Wolff and publisher Henry Holt and Co. Inc. also accuses the author of actual malice.
“Actual malice (reckless disregard for the truth) can be proven by the fact that the book admits in the Introduction that it contains untrue statements,” the letter states. “Moreover, the Book appears to cite to no sources for many of its most damaging statements about Mr. Trump.”
Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon has described the Trump Tower meeting between the president’s son and a group of Russians during the 2016 election campaign as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic”, according to an explosive new book seen by the Guardian.
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Bannon, speaking to author Michael Wolff, warned that the investigation into alleged collusion with the Kremlin will focus on money laundering and predicted: “They’re going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV.”
Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, reportedly based on more than 200 interviews with the president, his inner circle and players in and around the administration, is one of the most eagerly awaited political books of the year. In it, Wolff lifts the lid on a White House lurching from crisis to crisis amid internecine warfare, with even some of Trump’s closest allies expressing contempt for him.
Bannon, who was chief executive of the Trump campaign in its final three months, then White House chief strategist for seven months before returning to the rightwing Breitbart News, is a central figure in the nasty, cutthroat drama, quoted extensively, often in salty language.
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He is particularly scathing about a June 2016 meeting involving Trump’s son Donald Jr, son-in-law Jared Kushner, then campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in New York. A trusted intermediary had promised documents that would “incriminate” rival Hillary Clinton but instead of alerting the FBI to a potential assault on American democracy by a foreign power, Trump Jr replied in an email: “I love it.”
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The meeting was revealed by the New York Times in July last year, prompting Trump Jr to say no consequential material was produced. Soon after, Wolff writes, Bannon remarked mockingly: “The three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government inside Trump Tower in the conference room on the 25th floor – with no lawyers. They didn’t have any lawyers.
“Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad shit, and I happen to think it’s all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately.”
-Gurdian, Washington Times, CBSNews
(Justnews/ys/0210hr)
