One of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyers threatened on Thursday to sue a publisher over ‘false’ and ‘baseless’ claims in an explosive book set for release next Tuesday.
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has emerged as the villain in the new year’s first seismic political quake, drawing condemnation and a separate lawsuit threat from the president’s legal orbit.
But Thursday morning’s letter from California attorney Charles J. Harder, known for representing pro wrestler Hulk Hogan and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, puts ‘Fire and Fury’ – columnist Michael Wolff’s book about the Trump White House – on dicey footing.
Harder demanded publisher Henry Holt and Co. ‘immediately cease and desist from any further publication, release or dissemination of the book,’ including excerpts and summaries.
‘Your publication of false/baseless statements about Mr. Trump gives rise to, among other claims, defamation by libel per se, false light invasion of privacy, tortious interference with contractual relations, aand inducement of breach of contract,’ he wrote.
Michael Wolff, 64 (right) is the man behind the sensational tell-all from Donald Trump’s first months in the White House, and now the president is trying to stop the book before it’s released on January 9
Lawyer Charles Harder, who has represented Trump won-in-law Jared Kushner and former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan in the past, wrote a scathing 11-page letter to Henry Holt & Company and its newest star author Michael Wolff
Representing the Trump Organization, the president’s private company, harder has already accused Bannon of breaching a confidentiality agreement, saying legal action was ‘imminent.’
‘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,” read Harder’s letter to Bannon.
In a brutal statement Wednesday, Trump denounced his former campaign CEO as a self-promoting political faker who was exposed as a fraud when he was fired last year.
‘Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency,’ the statement said. ‘When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind.’
The White House also released a statement from first lady Melania Trump’s office slamming the Wolff book as a ‘bargain fiction’ offering.
Attorney Charles Harder (center) is leading the charge for Trump again Michael Wolff and his publisher; Harder previously represented Hulk Hogan (right) in a case against the now-defunct Gawker website
TRUMP’S WHITE HOUSE LIFE
President Donald Trump and former chief strategist Steve Bannon used to be so close they’d have dinner nearly every evening, an explosive new book about Trump’s first year in office reveals.
If the two former friends weren’t dining at 6:30 pm, Trump would retire to the residence, where he allegedly ate cheeseburgers from bed, sometimes watching three television screens while ranting about the media in phone calls to friends.
Author Michael Wolff claims that Trump added a lock to his bedroom door in the early days of the administration to the chagrin of Secret Service and screamed at housekeeping staff who tidied up after him.
‘If my shirt is on the floor, it’s because I want it on the floor,’ Trump allegedly said.
Wolff writes in ‘Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House’ that Trump told staff not to touch anything – especially not his toothbrush – as he’s notoriously afraid of being poisoned.
He would even strip his own bed and let housekeeping know when he wanted his sheets washed, Wolff says in a set of unsourced claims.
The Republican National Committee defended Trump by claiming Wolff has ‘a long history of making stuff up.’
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters Wednesday that the president was ‘furious’ and ‘disgusted’ at the pre-release material from Wolff’s book that found its way online.
Sanders also said Wolff had ‘never actually sat down with the president’ since Inauguration Day and had shared only on brief phone call ‘that had nothing to do, originally, with the book.’
Trump unleashed the full weight of his presidential bully pulpit on Bannon, casting him Wednesday as an opportunist who sought to steal credit for his stunning 2016 election victory.
‘Steve doesn’t represent my base – he’s only in it for himself,” Trump said in his Wednesday statement.
‘Steve pretends to be at war with the media, which he calls the opposition party, yet he spent his time at the White House leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was,’ the statement continued. ‘It is the only thing he does well.’
‘Steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue, whom he helped write phony books.’