Michael Wolff’s new book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House flew off bookshelves early Friday morning despite efforts by President Donald Trump’s legal team to stop the publication and distribution of the book.
The book soared to #1 on Amazon.com’s bestseller list just hours after the UK Guardian scooped the world by publishing details from a print version of the book that had been delivered to a book store in New England.
The book purports to quote Breitbart News executive chairman Steve Bannon, a senior White House adviser at the time, who allegedly criticized a meeting that Donald Trump, Jr. and campaign officials had with a Russian lawyer in July 2016 in the hope of gaining opposition research on Hillary Clinton: “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.”
Charles Harder, a private attorney for President Trump, sent Wolff and his publisher, Henry Holt and Co., a cease-and-desist letter on Thursday demanding a “full retraction and apology,” according to USA Today.
“Your publication of the false/baseless statements about Mr. Trump gives rise to, among other claims, defamation by libel, defamation by libel per se, false light invasion of privacy, tortious interference with contractual relations, and inducement of breach of contract,” the letter reportedly read.
Wolff thanked President Trump on Twitter for trying to block the book:
Here we go. You can buy it (and read it) tomorrow. Thank you, Mr. President.
— Michael Wolff (@MichaelWolffNYC) January 4, 2018
Late Thursday night, lines formed at Washington, D.C. book stores as curious patrons — and journalists looking for reportable tidbits — rushed to see what the president did not want them to read.
The books can’t be sold yet but they are being handed out to people in line (I can’t believe I am live tweeting this) pic.twitter.com/LkWUBHz1DV
— Ben Terris (@bterris) January 5, 2018
Sold out (73 copies). I did not get one. I’ll wait for the movie
— Ben Terris (@bterris) January 5, 2018
Will Sommer, campaign editor for The Hill, was one of the few who obtained a copy of the book. He opined on Twitter that the book’s “juiciest details” had already been reported in the media, “which makes the Trump cease and desist order to stop the book even stranger.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named to Forward’s 50 “most influential” Jews in 2017. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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