Trump Sends Cease and Desist to Publisher and Author of New Tell-All
Yesterday, a juicy bombshell of gossip and intrigue was dropped on news-hungry Americans in the form of details on Michael Wolff’s new book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. New York Magazine released some of the most fascinating excerpts from the book in a piece that set Twitter a-blaze. The salacious details were bonkers enough to have even the Left questioning Wolff’s past reputation in the press and the accuracy of reporting on his time sitting in the West Wing, observing a White House in the throes of utter chaos.
But what can’t be argued is how interested the American public is in his book, set to drop on January 9th. And this fact was proven given its meteoric rise on Amazon’s bestselling list from position #48,449 to #1 within 24 hours of receiving national news coverage. The subsequent buzz about this book forced the publisher to expedite the roll-out process, resulting in additional press necessary to be ahead of the advanced copies journalists were eagerly getting their hands on. Henry Holt & Company is a very happy publisher today.
But there’s a certain man sitting behind the Resolute desk who isn’t so pleased. Tales of his love for the golden arches, beefs with Steve Bannon, and details on the architectural process surrounding his unusual hair style, Donald Trump is certainly not displayed in a positive light in Wolff’s tell-all. And he knows it.
After Wolff’s post in NYMag, a Twitter meltdown ensued as Trump reacted to the book’s claim that Bannon called his team’s actions, in regards to the alleged Russia meetings,”treasonous” and “unpatriotic”. Yesterday evening saw a statement from the 45th President of the United States claiming that Bannon had “lost his mind” and a comment from White House Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, calling the book “trashy tabloid fiction”.
That must be the reason Holt and Michael Wolff have received cease and desist letters from the president’s lawyers, stating that the book makes false, defamatory claims against Donald Trump.
The letter reads: “Actual malice (reckless disregard for the truth) can be proven by the fact that the Book admits in the Introduction that it contains untrue statements. Moreover, the Book appears to cite to no sources for many of its most damaging statements about Mr. Trump. Also, many of your so-called ‘sources’ have stated publicly that they never spoke to Mr. Wolff and/or never made the statements that are being attributed to them. Other alleged ‘sources’ of statements about Mr. Trump are believed to have no personal knowledge of the facts upon which they are making statements or are known to be unreliable and/or strongly biased against Mr. Trump.”
Furthermore, a cease-a-desist letter was also sent to Steve Bannon against making future “false” statements against the president and his family.
Reports on the existence of recordings of the conversations portrayed in Fire and Fury have the general public questioning the validity of the actions of Trump’s lawyers and discussing what constitutes censorship. Time will tell if readers will be able to pick up a copy of Wolff’s book on January 9th.
UPDATE: Henry Holt & Company has announced that Fire and Fury will be released on Friday January 5th… a full 4 days before the originally scheduled publication date. Guess we now know what Holt and Wolff thought of that cease and desist letter.
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