Trump-Bannon row: White House lawyers issue cease-and-desist order
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", the letter said.
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On his radio show on Wednesday, Mr Bannon called the president "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, speaking after Mr Trump criticised him.
What is in the book?
The book – 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"
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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. A spokeswoman for Mr Blair told The Times that the allegations were a "total fabrication" and said Mr Blair had not suggested himself as Mr Trump's Middle East envoy.
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.
His book is reportedly based on more than 200 interviews.
According to New York magazine, which first published the extracts, Wolff was able to take advantage of 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.
Media playback is unsupported on your devicePress secretary Sarah Sanders dismissed the book as a "trashy tabloid fiction" "filled with false and misleading accounts from individuals who have no access or influence with the White House".
What has Bannon said?
Aside from the radio comment, Mr Bannon has not spoken publically about the book, the president's comments or the legal action.
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However, in an interview with BBC Newsnight, Raheem Kassam – a close adviser to Steve Bannon and 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."
An inevitable break-up
Anthony Zurcher, BBC News, Washington
Donald Trump swept to the presidency in part on the back of Steve Bannon and his Breitbart conservative media empire. Now we will see how he fares when he is at war with them.
The president's blistering reply to Mr Bannon's comments appears to indicate that the bridge between the politician and his ideological spirit guide has been reduced to cinders. But how will Mr Trump's legion of supporters react? It is never wise to underestimate their dedication to the man himself, above all else.
No matter the outcome of this coming battle, this has to be viewed as a devastating failure for Mr Bannon personally. After spending years advocating for an anti-establishment conservative populism, he finally had a seat in the halls of power. He said in early 2017 that his goal was nothing short of the "deconstruction of the administrative state".
Now he is on the outside again, besieged by long-time antagonists and former allies. His president recently signed a tax bill embraced by corporate interests. His first post-2016 foray into elective politics, the Alabama Senate race, ended in humiliating defeat.
Perhaps, given all this, the Bannon-Trump feud was as inevitable as it is certain to be vicious.
