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.
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”
Source: BBC
