Donald Trump’s lawyers threatened legal action on Wednesday night against his former right-hand man Steve Bannon, marking a fresh escalation after a day of turmoil that left the White House reeling.
A cease and desist letter accuses Bannon of violating a non-disclosure agreement by speaking about his time on Trump’s election campaign to Michael Wolff, whose new book has caused shockwaves in Washington
Charles Harder, the president’s lawyer, told ABC News that Bannon’s communications with Wolff “give rise to numerous legal claims including defamation by libel and slander, and breach of his written confidentiality and non-disparagement agreement with our clients. Legal action is imminent.”
Harder’s letter to Bannon warned: “You have breached the agreement by, among other things, communicating with author Michael Wolff about Mr Trump, his family members, and the company, disclosing confidential information to Mr Wolff, and making disparaging statements and in some cases outright defamatory statements to Mr Wolff about Mr Trump, his family members, and the company.”
What is in the book?
The book - Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House - makes many explosive claims, including that:
- Mr Bannon thought a meeting between Donald Trump Jr and a group of Russians was "treasonous"
- The Trump team was shocked and horrified by his election win
- His wife, Melania, was in tears on election night
- Mr Trump was angry that A-list stars had snubbed his inauguration
- The new president "found the White House to be vexing and even a little scary".
- His daughter, Ivanka, had a plan with her husband, Jared Kushner, that she would be "the first woman president"
- Ivanka Trump mocked her dad's "comb-over" hairstyle and "often described the mechanics behind it to friends"
It also alleges that former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair told Mr Trump during a meeting last February that the British intelligence services may have been spying on him and his campaign, according to a report in The Times newspaper.
The Times says Mr Blair was hoping to get a job advising Mr Trump on the Middle East. A spokeswoman for Mr Blair told The Times that the allegations were a "total fabrication" and said Mr Blair had not suggested himself as Mr Trump's Middle East envoy.
In March 2017, then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer told journalists UK intelligence services could have been involved in an alleged spying operation on Trump Tower in New York. GCHQ said the allegation was "nonsense".
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