TRUMP ESCALATES attack on Bannon; legal team demands halt to new book.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump escalated his attack on former top adviser Steve Bannon and a new book portraying him as a volatile and ill-equipped chief executive, while his legal team demanded that the author and publisher halt its release and apologize or face a possible lawsuit.
The book quotes Bannon, among other things, calling Trump’s son’s contact with a Russian lawyer “treasonous.” On Thursday, Trump said of his former chief strategist: “I don’t talk to him.”
Hitting back via formal White House statement rather than a more typical Twitter volley, Trump insisted Wednesday that Bannon had little to do with his victorious campaign and that “When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind.”
He continued to distance himself from Bannon on Thursday, calling him “Sloppy Steve” in a late-night tweet in which he also called into question the veracity of the book.
“I authorized Zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phony book! I never spoke to him for book. Full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don’t exist. Look at this guy’s past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve!” he tweeted, referring to the author of the book, Michael Wolff.
In Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, Wolff paints Trump as a leader who doesn’t understand the weight of the presidency and spends his evenings eating cheeseburgers in bed, watching television and talking on the phone to old friends.
Speaking to reporters before meeting with Republican senators Thursday, Trump noted that Bannon had praised him on his radio show late Wednesday after Trump issued the statement. “He called me a great man last night,” Trump said. “He obviously changed his tune pretty quick.”
Late Wednesday, Trump attorney Charles Harder threatened legal action against Bannon over “disparaging statements and in some cases outright defamatory statements.”
Harder sent Bannon a letter saying the former Trump aide violated confidentiality agreements by speaking with Wolff. The letter demanded Bannon “cease and desist” any further disclosure of confidential information. Bannon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Thursday, Harder sent cease-and-desist letters to Wolff and publisher Henry Holt and Co.
“Mr. Trump hereby demands that you immediately cease and desist from any further publication, release or dissemination of the book, the article, or any excerpts or summaries of either of them, to any person or entity, and that you issue a full and complete retraction and apology to my client as to all statements made about him in the book and article that lack competent evidentiary support,” Harder wrote.
Neither Wolff nor his publisher immediately responded to requests for comment.
White House aides were blindsided when early excerpts from the book were published online by New York magazine and other media outlets ahead of its publication date, which was moved back by the publisher from Tuesday to today.
The release left Trump “furious” and “disgusted,” said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
In a statement Thursday, billionaire conservative donor Rebekah Mercer said she has not spoken to Bannon in many months and that she continues to support Trump. She said she remains committed in her support for Breitbart News, where she holds a minority stake and where Bannon is chairman.
In the book, an advance copy of which was provided to The Associated Press, Bannon is quoted as describing a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Donald Trump Jr., Trump campaign aides and a Russian lawyer as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.” The meeting has become a focus of several investigations.
Bannon also told Wolff that the investigations into potential collusion between Russia and Trump campaign officials would likely focus on money laundering.
“They’re going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV,” Bannon was quoted as saying in one section that was first reported by The Guardian.
Trump Jr. lashed out in a series of tweets, including one that said Andrew Breitbart, the founder of the Breitbart News site, “would be ashamed of the division and lies Steve Bannon is spreading!”
Bannon, who was forced out of his White House job last summer, was not surprised or particularly bothered by the blowback, according to a person familiar with his thinking but not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. That person said Bannon vowed Wednesday to continue his war on the Republican establishment and also predicted that, after a cooling-off period, he’d continue to speak with Trump.
Wolff was generally granted access to the White House with a “blue badge” instead of a traditional press badge, giving him wide access to the West Wing, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal protocol. One former White House official said Wolff was known to camp out for hours in the West Wing lobby to talk to staff members passing by.
Wolff said in an author’s note that the book was based on more than 200 interviews, including multiple conversations with the president and senior staff. But Sanders said Wolff “never actually sat down with the president” and had spoken with him just once, briefly, by phone, since Trump had taken office.
She also said the vast majority of interviews Wolff conducted with other White House officials were done at Bannon’s request.