The publisher of Michael Wolff’s new White House tell-all said Thursday that the company plans to proceed with publishing the book even after the White House demanded they stop the release of the book and apologize to President Trump, The Hill confirmed.
“We see ‘Fire and Fury’ as an extraordinary contribution to our national discourse, and are proceeding with the publication of the book,” a spokesperson for publisher Henry Holt & Company said in a statement.
The announcement comes after Trump’s lawyers sent a cease-and-desist letter to the publishing company earlier in the day, a document that typically suggests the possibility of a lawsuit if the receiver does not discontinue the conduct the attorneys sending the letter claim is illegal.
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Wolff’s book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” is set to be released Friday, four days earlier than originally planned.
The company decided to move up the date after excerpts of the book, some of which were published by The Guardian on Wednesday, took Washington by storm, with stunning quotes from former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon and others receiving particular attention.
“Due to unprecedented demand, we are moving the on-sale date for all formats of ‘Fire and Fury,’ by Michael Wolff, to Friday, January 5, at 9 a.m. ET, from the current on-sale date of Tuesday, January 9,” the company announced.
In excerpts of the book, Bannon blasted the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., calling him “treasonous” and “unpatriotic” for attending the now infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer.
“Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad shit, and I happen to think it’s all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately,” Bannon added, according to the book.
The White House sought to distance itself from the Breitbart executive chairman, painting him as a deranged and bitter former aide.
“Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind,” Trump said in a statement on Wednesday.
“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,” the statement added.
Bannon, Trump’s former campaign executive and White House chief strategist, faced a torrent of the president’s fury. The scathing remarks reveal a rare, public feud unfolding between a former staffer and sitting president, who tried to downplay how much power and authority Bannon had in his administration.
Bannon, who has not publicly pushed back on the book’s quotes, is facing fallout from former allies who are now in Trump’s camp, including billionaire GOP mega-donor Rebekah Mercer.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the right-wing news network’s board members are weighing whether to oust Bannon in light of his comments.
– Updated: 7:08 p.m.