Author has tapes of interviews with Bannon, officials: report
The author of an explosive new book on the Trump White House reportedly has tapes of some of his interviews with officials.
Axios reported that author Michael Wolff recorded interviews with individuals including former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon and former White House deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh.
The officials in some cases thought they were conducting off-the-record interviews, according to Axios.
{mosads}Excerpts of the book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” were released Wednesday.
In the book, Bannon reportedly calls a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between people including Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.”
“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,” Trump said.
Allies of Bannon also sought to distance themselves as the extent of his break with Trump became clear.
President Trump’s lawyers on Wednesday also reportedly sent a cease-and-desist letter to Bannon, ordering him to refrain from making “disparaging” statements about Trump and his family.
The Trump administration is also going to start barring White House employees and guests from using their personal cellphones at work, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said early Thursday.
Sanders said in a statement that the “security and integrity of the technology systems at the White House is a top priority for the Trump administration.”
Trump has often talked about leaks of information since he assumed office.
A report surfaced in November that the White House was weighing the ban.
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