Journalist Michael Wolff's book claiming to show an inside look at the first months of President Donald Trump's time in the White House is "just trash," former campaign senior adviser Michael Caputo said Thursday.
"I stand with the president 100 percent," Caputo told Fox News' "Fox and Friends" program. "It had to be really disheartening and even maddening for the president to read those excerpts that were released yesterday. This book by Michael Wolff is just trash, if you ask me. You can't really believe what Michael Wolff says in any of his writings."
Wolff's "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" will be released Jan. 9.
Caputo pointed out that the Columbia Journalism Review "called his work twisted and disgusting," likely referring to a 2010 article criticizing Wolff's take on a story in The New York Times.
However, he conceded, "clearly the president believes what Michael Wolff wrote about Steve Bannon and others."
Caputo also said he found a set of quotes attributed to Bannon, in which he considered Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a group of Russians "treasonous" to be disturbing.
"I was really disturbed by those comments," Caputo said. "I think that that causes grief for the president and this presidency in the context of the ongoing Russia investigation, and I don't blame the president one bit for going off like he did."
Meanwhile, Bannon has been served with a cease-and-desist letter from Trump's attorney, as people working with the campaign signed a non-disclosure, non-disparagement agreement. Caputo said everyone on the campaign, even the volunteers, had to sign one as well.
"I would have expected the president's lawyers to launch that letter to Steve Bannon," said Caputo. "It's not the first time that they have been out there pulling out those agreements against people who spoke badly of the president and his family."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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