Trump is of course firing off threats of lawsuits right and left.
He’s threatening the publisher and the author.
The legal notice, which has been published by the Washington Post, demands that author Michael Wolff and the book’s publisher “immediately cease and desist from any further publication, release or dissemination of the book”.
It accuses Wolff of making “numerous false and/or baseless statements” about Mr Trump and says lawyers are considering pursuing libel charges.
Considering it. They just might do it! I’m tellin ya, they’ll do it! They will! You better shut up or they will!
A private lawyer representing Trump sent a cease-and-desist letter to Bannon, arguing he violated an employment agreement with the Trump Organization when he spoke to author Michael Wolff for a new scathing book about the presidency.
With the Trump Organization? Huh, there we were thinking he was working for the government, aka us. Not to mention, can a president really sue people into not saying he’s incompetent and a bozo?
Trump is a public figure. So suing for defamation, as the letter threatens, could require Trump to prove that a statement made by Bannon was false, damaging and delivered with actual malice, meaning that Bannon knew his comments were false and made them anyway.
Suing Bannon for breaking an employment contract would be even more difficult, said Lobel, who described the move as a “desperate” attempt by Trump to silence his former confidant.
…
In the cease-and-desist letter, Trump’s lawyer wrote that Bannon breached three sections of his employment agreement with the Trump Organization by communicating with Wolff, disclosing confidential information and making disparaging statements and in some cases outright defamatory statements about Trump, his family and the campaign.
Bannon has not revealed the exact terms of the contract he signed. But according to Trump’s lawyer, Bannon promised in his employment agreement not to disclose confidential information, not to demean or publicly disparage Trump, his family, or the campaign, and not to communicate with any member of the news media on behalf of, or about the campaign, without express written authorization from the campaign or Trump.
That’s such classic Trump – nobody may disparage Trump but Trump may disparage everyone else in the most vulgar and dishonest terms. One rule for Donald and another rule for every other human being on the planet.
During the presidential campaign, other staffers described how Trump forced their silence through such restrictive agreements, which are highly unusual in political campaigns. One such document, obtained by The Washington Post, includes a “no-disparagement” clause that requires staffers to promise “during the term of your service and at all time thereafter” not to “demean or disparage publicly” Trump, his business ventures or any of his family members or their business ventures “and to prevent your employees from doing so.”
Essentially, he approached his campaign staff much as he did the employees of his business ventures — demanding control over what they can and can’t say. As he transitioned to the White House, some wondered if he would enforce a similar silence from his administration — raising concerns about government transparency.
He’s got the world’s most ravenous ego.
Comments
10 responses to “How dare anyone say rude things about Trump?”
Pre-ordered :-D
It must be time for me to go home and get some sleep. I read this as “false and/or badass statements”.
Can Trump force a government employee to sign a non-disclosure agreement? I mean, it might cover his time for the campaign, but is it possible for a public servant to order another public servant to sign a non-disclosure? I realize there are things that are confidential, and if you work for intelligence, for instance, you are expected not to disclose. But I don’t think that includes calling the President a bozo – which is common knowledge already, anyway.
Non-disclosure agreements should be illegal. They are almost routinely used to cover up either incompetence, petty malice, or crimes, none of which should be respected or protected so assiduously.
It looks as if it’s yet another of those “norms” things – no a public employee shouldn’t be able to do that, but Trump does what he wants and there’s no actual automatic or mandatory way to stop him. But this book is probably making it clear to all and sundry that he can’t possibly enforce it so it’s meaningless.
The funniest part is apparently the WH was under the impression the book would be very positive. :-D
@iknklast You can’t force federal employees to sign NDA’s outside of what is already imposed by statute. So there are things that I did as a Fed that I am not supposed to talk about except in general terms nor use to my own benefit (that sounds much more exciting than it really is).
So if anyone was forced to sign one, it is in fact non-enforceable. Such an agreement cannot supersede Federal statutes. I think that’s true even for political appointees – as far as I know the legislation covers competitive service, the excepted service and the Senior Executive Service.
So I had a look for Michael Wolff’s book on Amazon. Some other interesting titles popped up:
The Pee Pee Tape coloring book
Donald Trump Off The Record: Trump Counts From One To a Hundred Without Lying
The New Republican Bible: King Trump Version
Trump’s Brain: An FBI Profile of Donald Trump: Predicting Trump’s Actions and Presidency
The Gospel: King Trump Version Bible
I begin to suspect our Dear Leader is not highly esteemed in some circles.
“and to prevent your employees from doing so.”
I can sign a contract that requires me to prevent other people from exercising their rights?
Claire – that makes sense. I have worked for state governments for a large chunk of my life, and in some positions where I dealt with people’s personal private information (right now, for instance). I am required by HIPAA to follow certain guidelines on what I can and can’t reveal, and who I can or can’t reveal it to, and there are certain types of things/opinions that I am not allowed to express in my role as employee, but I suspect that going out and saying “Gee, my boss is a big jerk who never can get things right!” would be frowned on, but not prohibited by my contract. Going out and saying “X is flunking all my classes, and should really drop out right now” would be prohibited, but more by the regulations that govern our work than by any sort of special agreement I signed with my boss. It’s just part of the regulations governing my employment.
So Bannon was forbidden to talk to Wolf? But Trump brings Wolf into the West Wing for months so that he can write a book?
Ok, I just finished reading Fire and Fury, and while most of the things Wolff writes about is hardly going to come as news to regular readers of B&W, I still found it useful to get all the separate outrageous incidents we’ve been witnessing for the last year woven into a larger narrative. Some of the main themes of the book are these:
Nobody in the Trump campaign – and least of all Trump himself – thought he stood a snowball’s chance in Hell of actually being elected, but most of them saw the campaign as a useful launching platform for future career opportunities, The unexpected victory left them totally unprepared for the task ahead:
Once elected, the president’s undisciplined, impulsive, volatile nature, his contempt for expertise, as well as his general lack of understanding of/interest in any topic other than his own ego meant he had to be constantly managed like a toddler:
From the very beginning the Trump administration was plagued by bitter rivalry between an alt-right burn-everything-to-the-ground faction represented by Steve Bannon, A mainstream Republican faction represented by Reince Priebus, and a more liberal faction represented by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, each faction trying to influence the toddler in chief in a different direction. Strategic leaks became the weapon of choice against rivals inside the Trump administration itself.
I am reminded once again of this prescient Cracked video from before the election that envisioned the Trump campaign as an elaborate prank.