U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he leaves the White House en route to Mar-a-lago Estate in Florida after signing the tax cut bill into law in Washington D.C., the United States, on Dec. 22, 2017. U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed a 1.5-trillion-dollar tax cut bill into law, as well as a spending bill to keep the federal government running through January 19, 2018. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)
WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday demanded publisher immediately stop release of a forthcoming controversial book about his administration, one day after he lambasted former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon over book quotes.
In a letter sent to publisher Steve Rubin and author Michael Wolff by Trump's legal team, the president also demanded "a full and complete retraction and apology."
"Mr. Trump hereby demands that you immediately cease and desist from any further publication, release or dissemination of the book," attorney Charles J. Harder wrote in the letter obtained by U.S. local media outlets.
Harder requested the publisher send him a full copy of the book. Meanwhile, he argued in the letter that the book includes "false/baseless statements" which could be "defamation by libel."
The cease and desist letter came one day after The Guardian newspaper revealed that Bannon, quoted from excerpts of the book "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," described the 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between a Russian lawyer and Trump's son and son-in-law as "treasonous" and "unpatriotic."
"Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency," Trump said in a statement later on Wednesday. "When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind."
Later on Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders fiercely slapped Wolff's book, accusing it is "filled with false and misleading accounts."
She also said the president felt "furious" and" disgusted" about Bannon's comments in the book.
The book is set to be published on Jan. 9.