Trump Bannon row: White House lawyers threaten former aide

05:55
US President Donald Trump's lawyers have written to his former strategist Steve Bannon, saying he has violated a non-disclosure agreement.


The cease-and-desist notice accuses Mr Bannon of defaming the president in speaking to author Michael Wolff.

Wolff's forthcoming tell-all book describes the president as being unprepared for the job.

Mr Trump responded by saying Mr Bannon had "lost his mind" after losing his White House position.

His lawyers said Mr Bannon had broken his employment agreement by speaking to Wolff about Mr Trump and his family, "disclosing confidential information" and "making disparaging statements and in some cases outright defamatory statements to Mr Wolff about Mr Trump, his family members, and the Company".

On his radio show on Wednesday, Mr Bannon responded to the president's criticism by saying he was a "great man".

"You know, I support him day in and day out," he said on the station run by right-wing Breitbart News, which he heads.

The book is reportedly based on more than 200 interviews.

Trump-Bannon: A knife fight with consequences
Who is author of explosive Trump book?
On Thursday, the Hollywood Reporter published Wolff's behind-the-scenes account. He concluded that everyone he spoke to was in agreement in their view on Mr Trump: "They all - 100 percent - came to believe he was incapable of functioning in his job".

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"
10 explosive claims from new Trump book

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.

Mr Blair told the BBC Today programme the story was "complete fabrication, from beginning to end". He said he had met Mr Kushner and discussed the Middle East peace process with him but denied angling for work.

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".

Who is Michael Wolff?
The 64-year-old writer is a former columnist for New York magazine and Vanity Fair. He also wrote a biography of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

According to New York magazine, which first published the extracts, Wolff was able to exploit the Trump administration's political inexperience to gain an unusual amount of insight.

"There were no ground rules placed on his access, and he was required to make no promises about how he would report on what he witnessed," it says.

Wolff said he was able to take up "something like a semi-permanent seat on a couch in the West Wing" following the president's inauguration.

However, some of the US media are questioning the veracity of some of the stories. The Washington Post said he was a "provocateur and media polemicist", and his reporting had been questioned before.

How has the Trump administration defended itself?
"Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency," Mr Trump said in a statement on Wednesday.

Press secretary Sarah Sanders dismissed the book as a "trashy tabloid fiction" that she said was "filled with false and misleading accounts from individuals who have no access or influence with the White House".


A spokesperson for Melania Trump said the First Lady had encouraged her husband's presidential bid. "She was confident he would win and was very happy when he did," she said on Wednesday.

What's being said in Bannon's defence?
Aside from the radio comment, Mr Bannon has not spoken publicly about the book, the president's comments or the legal action.

How Trump cooled on Bannon
However, in an interview with BBC Newsnight, Raheem Kassam - UK editor of Breitbart News - said the Wolff interviews could have been taken out of context.

He also said Mr Bannon was well-placed to comment on the Russia controversy, having served in the US Navy.

"He understands what the geopolitical threat is..." said Mr Kassam. "So when he remarks that these people shouldn't probably have been in Trump Tower taking meetings with senior campaign staff without lawyers in the room, I would say that is a fair thing to say."

Share this

Related Posts

Previous
Next Post »