Trump lawyer fails to block book about president’s first year
WASHINGTON — In an extraordinary step for a sitting president, Donald Trump had his lawyer demand on Thursday that Henry Holt & Co. and author Michael Wolff stop publication of a soon-to-be-released book about the chaotic first year of Trump’s presidency.
Instead, the publisher expedited the book’s release to today, four days before it was slated to reach bookstores, in response to “unprecedented demand.” Excerpts published on Wednesday and Thursday whetted that appetite.
In the letter on Trump’s behalf, lawyer Charles J. Harder demanded that the author and publishing house “cease and desist from any further publication, release or dissemination” of the book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.
The publisher, in announcing its decision to act immediately, said in a statement: “We see Fire and Fury as an extraordinary contribution to our national discourse, and are proceeding with the publication of the book.”
The book includes criticisms of Trump and his circle from a number of top aides, including former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon.
Bannon’s comments, including that it was “treasonous” and “unpatriotic” for Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign manager Paul Manafort to have met in 2016 with Russians said to have “dirt” on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, prompted Trump on Wednesday to rebuke his former adviser, saying Bannon had “lost his mind.”
Trump’s lawyers also sent a cease-and-desist letter to Bannon, saying he had made “disparaging” and “outright defamatory” statements about Trump and Trump’s family to Wolff, violating a nondisclosure agreement Bannon had signed when he worked for Trump’s campaign. Any such agreement would not likely extend to Bannon’s subsequent White House employment.
The break between Trump and Bannon, who had bonded over their shared nationalist beliefs and anti-establishment populism, apparently caused further problems for Bannon. Prominent conservative donor Rebekah Mercer, who was a financial backer of Bannon’s Breitbart News website, indicated in a statement that she had withdrawn support.
The initial dust-up involving Bannon followed Wednesday’s publication of book excerpts in the Guardian and New York magazine. On Thursday, in a column published by the Hollywood Reporter titled “You Can’t Make This S--- Up: My Year Inside Trump’s Insane White House,” Wolff described how he got virtually unbridled access to Trump’s senior aides, frequently sitting on a couch in the West Wing as they came and went.