By Ben Kerrigan-
U.S President Trump’s lawyers have accused his former strategist Steve Bannon of violating a non-disclosure agreement.
The allegation comes in the wake of the communication letter, dubbed a ”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.
In response, 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, some which are allegedly outright defamatory statements to Mr Wolff about Mr Trump, his family members, and the Company”.
On his radio show on Wednesday, Mr Bannon responded to the president’s criticism by saying he was a “great man”.
“You know, I support him day in and day out,” he said on the station run by rig
Mr Bannon expresses his views that a meeting between Donald Trump Jr and a group of Russians was “treasonous”. He says The Trump team was shocked and horrified by his election win. He further reveals that Donald Trump’s wife, Melania, was in tears on election night. He adds that Mr Trump was angry that A-list stars had snubbed his inauguration. Other claims made in the explosive book. ‘Inside he White House’, includes:
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”ht-wing Breitbart News, which he heads.
The New York magazine, which first published the extracts have said that Wolff was able to exploit 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.
The Washington Post has poured scorn on the claims, stating that Bannon was a “provocateur and media polemicist”, and his reporting had been questioned before.
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.”