Trump lawyers try to halt book's release as White House fights to contain firestorm

[Soph0571]

Source: The Guardian

Lawyers for Donald Trump moved on Thursday to try to shut down the explosive new book which has exposed the chaos behind the scenes at the White House.

Michael Wolff’s book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House is due to be released next Tuesday, but after extracts from the book were first made public by the Guardian, the Trump White House has been thrown into a frenzy.

First, Trump issued a remarkable personal statement denouncing Steve Bannon, his one-time confidant, who he castigated as self-aggrandizing and not a critical figure in his presidency.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/04/trump-lawyers-book-steve-bannon-white-house

[Botany]

1. Way to go Team Trump because this move will pump up the sales and reading of the book.

n/t

[PJMcK]

3. I read elsewhere that the book is number one on Amazon!

Good luck shutting that down, Trump.

[Botany]

4. Back in the day King Canute tried to stop the tide from coming in.

[Scruffy1]

8. He was actually sane.

He did it to show all of the sycophants that he was a mere mortal and didn't have power over everything.

[keithbvadu2]

22. Thanks. I had to look it up. Sometimes we selectively interpret old legends and stories the way we w

Thanks. I had to look it up. Sometimes we selectively interpret old legends and stories the way we want them to be rather than the reality.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

25. Yes, many probably conflate it with Xerxes who may have been less sane

According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Xerxes's first attempt to bridge the Hellespont ended in failure when a storm destroyed the flax and papyrus cables of the bridges. In retaliation, Xerxes ordered the Hellespont (the strait itself) whipped three hundred times, and had fetters thrown into the water. Xerxes's second attempt to bridge the Hellespont was successful.[22]

[iluvtennis]

9. LOL....very appropriate.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. I think that's what's called a "prior restraint"

- that is, the action by government to prevent something from being published or communicated - and it's ever so unconstitutional. You learn that in your first year of law school. Where does Trump find these lawyers? In the basement of a nail salon in a strip mall in Albuquerque?

Even though these "lawyers" are acting as Trump's personal attorneys it's still government action because they are trying to prevent the publication of a book about Trump's actions as president, and for a president to try to do that, even if he doesn't employ the White House counsel or DoJ to do it, it's still un-fucking-constitutional.

[PJMcK]

6. I learned it in junior high school

Trump has trouble finding lawyers because of his abysmal payment history and his constant and consistent lying. That's why he ends up with such inferior representation.

To be fair, Trump's lawyers very well may know that their actions are meaningless and they are simply trying to appease their client.

[dixiegrrrrl]

24. One of his ;lawyers when Trump was a civilian said they always met with him in teams

to have witnesses to what he said that he would later lie about.
Lawyer said " I wouln't believe him even if his tongue were notarized".

[RKP5637]

27. " I wouln't believe him even if his tongue were notarized"

[Irish_Dem]

31. So there is nothing Trump can do to stop the book? Or gag Bannon? nt

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

34. Nope. Not a thing.

He can sue him for defamation, as threatened, but Trump is a public figure and would have to prove actual malice (as to the author and publisher), which means that the statements were made intentionally with the knowledge they were false. A lawsuit would be a disaster for Trump because he'd have the burden of proving not only that the statements were false but that Bannon, the author and the publisher knew they were false. Trump often threatens to sue people and doesn't follow through.

He can't gag Bannon either because Bannon was a federal employee and NDAs don't apply to them. The "work product" of federal employees belongs to the public and can't be restricted except in cases involving national security.

[Irish_Dem]

38. My oh my. Quite interesting, thank you.

I didn't realize NDAs did not apply to federal employees.
Trump must have shit a brick when he found out that fact.

And yes I thought the same thing, if Trump files the defamation lawsuit
it could well backfire on him. Even if the book does contain some falsehoods.
But most of what I have read so far is consistent with Trump's known pathology.
The pathology we see every day in his interviews and tweets.

Yes I wondered if the cease and desist letter is just a threat designed to
make the recipient fold like a lawn chair.

[Raster]

54. tRump* would NEVER survive the discovery process.

[PJMcK]

55. YOU SAID IT!!! (n/t)

[Aviation Pro]

44. Hey, dont bag on my man

Jimmy Magill.

[SoCalNative]

46. Better Call Saul

[bucolic_frolic]

5. US Still Bans, Suppresses Books Despite The First Amendment

http://www.mintpressnews.com/us-still-bans-suppresses-books-despite-the-forbidden-bookshelf/207064/

[Sgent]

20. Just because reviewers

don't like a book and the Zionists pull their advertising doesn't mean the book is banned. All of the first three editions were published, and some (if not all) are still in print / e-distribution.

[LanternWaste]

23. Lack of sales, critical reviews, and mocking contributing to a book's failure, is not suppression.

Lack of sales, critical reviews, and advertisers abandoning an author, all contributing to a book's failure, is not suppression, it's a business decision.

All these fine young authors may as yet, still self-publish; and should you wish, you may find any book listed in the editorial you linked to and purchase it.

[Codeine]

26. Nothing on that list is banned

or suppressed by the government. Utter hogwash.

[snooper2]

28. Just checked out that "mint press" website, Glenn Greenwald quotes, RT videos

Looks like a place a jackpine "radical" would love LOL

[bucolic_frolic]

32. The very first book on the list was unavailable for approximately 70 years

"before being republished as an e-book, original copies sold for thousands of dollars on Amazon."

Hey, I didn't author the website, I just provided the link

[BumRushDaShow]

33. I have Toni Morrison's "Bluest Eye" on my bookshelf somewhere.

This is not "U.S." (government) suppressing/banning of books like Russia might do. It may be a few inconsequential schools that question certain content for classroom use but there is no mass "banning" in modern U.S. society.

[bettyellen]

58. I have that and Perselopolis. Both were easy to buy. Bad reviews and lack of sales are suppression?

[BumRushDaShow]

59. In this case, I don't even think Toni Morrison's book had a lack of sales!!!

But then the issues it raised weren't much different from Maya Angelou's "I Know Why a Caged Bird Sings" (outside of one being fiction and the other autobiographical).

[bettyellen]

61. Im sorry I clicked on the article- its just a list of books they think should have been more

popular, there’s no claims the first amendment is in danger. Just that things go out of print and they wish they wouldn’t.

[bettyellen]

57. LOL - thats not banning books, ha ha. What utter nonsense.

[Squinch]

7. .

[Ferrets are Cool]

10. It is my guess that WE THE PEOPLE have to pay for this

waste of money, right?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. These are Trump's personal attorneys, but I'm sure

he'll figure out a way to get someone else to pay their fees (if they get paid at all).

[Brother Buzz]

50. The Donald Trump 2020 re-election campaign is carrying the freight on this one

So, the Yahoos that are contributing to his sham campaign are paying

[Ferrets are Cool]

60. That's good to know. ty. nm

[ProudMNDemocrat]

11. Too late, the beans have been spilled.

The truth behind the scenes of the Trump White House is out and Trumplethinskin is irate. Too fucking bad, Donnie. Deal!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

12. "It's deja vu all over again."

"Yogi-isms"

Prior restraint

Prior restraint (also referred to as prior censorship or pre-publication censorship) is censorship imposed, usually by a government, on expression that prohibits particular instances of expression. It is in contrast to censorship which establishes general subject matter restrictions and reviews a particular instance of expression only after the expression has taken place.

In some countries (e.g., United States, Argentina) prior restraint by the government is forbidden, subject to certain exceptions, by a constitution.
....

Prior restraint in the United States

Which recently appointed justice will be the first to stab America in the back?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

14. I don't think even Gorsuch would put up with this.

He's a constitutional literalist, and they tend also to be First Amendment absolutists. His role model, Scalia, consistently upheld First Amendment claims.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

15. If I were a betting person, I would bet that you are right.

I certainly hope so.

Good morning.

Will this start at a lower level than SCOTUS, some court in DC?

I'm linking to this not for you, but for other interested parties:

Pentagon Papers case

In the Pentagon Papers case (New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (1971)), the Nixon administration sought to enjoin The New York Times and The Washington Post newspapers from publishing excerpts from a top-secret United States Department of Defense history of the United States involvement in the Vietnam War from 1945 to 1971. The government tried to use the "national security" exception that had been suggested in the Near decision. The Supreme Court struck down the injunctions. However, the decision was fragmented, with nine separate opinions being filed in the case. It was not clear at the time what the effect would be on future prior restraint cases.

Full disclosure: IANAL.

[ffr]

16. What is the word I'm looking for?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

17. Yes, The Trump Cease & Desist Letter Over The Bannon Book Is Stupid

GOVERNMENT

Yes, The Trump Cease & Desist Letter Over The Bannon Book Is Stupid

Just like every other legal document prepared by this administration.

By ELIE MYSTAL
at 11:08 AM

It’s a snow day in the Northeast. If you’re reading this, it’s because you went into work to try to be a hero, found that nobody else is there, and are just killing time until you feel it’s okay to go home. ... Since we’re just among friends, let me bring you behind the curtain and show you a little of how the sausage gets made around here.
....

Reporting on the Trump administration is like a game of Clue. Today, it’s Charles J. Harder with the cease and desist over the Michael Wolff book that includes tell-alls from Steve Bannon. Tomorrow, it could be Don McGahn filing a lawsuit against snow for “false imprisonment” of the President in D.C. The details of each successive eruption of legal fallacy hardly even matter. The man employs hundreds of lawyers and none of them seem to be able to make a cogent legal argument.

Trump filings are just like this blizzard. It’s a flurry of white stuff that stings and freezes, but if you try to really wrestle with any individual piece, it just kinds of melts away, like there was nothing there to begin with.

We’re all gonna die.

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [e-mail]. He will resist.

[lark]

18. I'm pre-ordering it today on Kindle.

Can't wait to read it.

[NastyRiffraff]

21. I pre-ordered the physical book

Kindle is fine and I love mine, but sometimes I want to hold a book and turn pages. This is one of those.

Amazon promised delivery on the release date: January 9.

[MFM008]

37. Yup

Mine comes on Tuesday from Amazon.

[Gothmog]

19. There is not chance that this lawsuit will work

[riversedge]

29. Wolff wrote: .... a heavily made-up Trump failed to recognize a succession of old friends.

wonder what he meant by these words-heavily made up?? make up???

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/04/trump-lawyers-book-steve-bannon-white-house



.....................On Thursday, in a column for the Hollywood Reporter titled My Year Inside Trump’s Insane White House, Wolff gave more insight into what he discovered as he sat “day after day on a West Wing couch” for a year.

Administration officials, he suggested, do not believe Donald Trump is capable of fulfilling his role as president.

“Everybody was painfully aware of the increasing pace of his repetitions,” Wolff wrote. “It used to be inside of 30 minutes he’d repeat, word-for-word and expression-for-expression, the same three stories – now it was within 10 minutes. Indeed, many of his tweets were the product of his repetitions – he just couldn’t stop saying something.”

He added: “Hoping for the best, with their personal futures as well as the country’s future depending on it, my indelible impression of talking to them and observing them through much of the first year of his presidency, is that they all – 100% – came to believe he was incapable of functioning in his job.”

In a final anecdote, Wolff wrote: “At Mar-a-Lago, just before the new year, a heavily made-up Trump failed to recognize a succession of old friends.”.............

[SunSeeker]

42. Fucking scary.

[Irish_Dem]

30. The more Trump tries to suppress the book, the more people are going to want to read it.

That is human nature.

[Bengus81]

47. Married with Children TV ratings weren't that good until......

That woman bitched to Coke and had then actually pull their advertising. Ratings went through the ROOF.

[Irish_Dem]

49. Yep. Tell people they cannot do something and they will do the opposite.

Trump would have been better off to ignore Bannnon.

[C_U_L8R]

51. Wolff played Trump beautifully

Last edited Thu Jan 4, 2018, 11:56 PM - Edit history (1)

With these planned pre-releases, Wolff got more free marketing than he could ever hope for.
It's brilliant.

[Irish_Dem]

52. I totally agree. Trump is so predictable. He has no self discipline or common sense.

Push a button and he was going to give Wolfe a free huge PR, money could not have bought it.

[0rganism]

35. toothpaste! get back in that tube NOW!!!

good luck guys...

[jgmiller]

36. I wonder if any of his lawyers pointed

out that if they actually file a suit to stop it they have to prove libel which means Trump will be deposed.

The publisher is not going to back out of this money now, the book is in people's hands the best his lawyers could get would be a temporary injunction but that the puts it off. The only way to keep it out of bookstores it to go full bore and go through with the suit and then comes the deposition.

If he actually had a good lawyer he would listen to the best advice would be to let it be published and ignore it. 70% of the country thinks he's an idiot anyway by doing this he's just feeding the fire.

[Sam McGee]

39. As I recall . . . .

As I recall, no sooner did Clinton take office than Regnery Press started cranking out bullshit “exposes” on Bill, Hillary, everyone in their administration — even on Socks the Cat. Rightwingers danced in the streets, citing the Regnery publications as Holy Writ.

Ditto for Obama's eight years.

Sucks when the shoe is on the other foot.

Piss on ‘em.

[Towlie]

40. Few advertising strategies work better than "Here are the secrets that ... doesn't want you to know"

Add to that the fact that in this case the claim is clearly true, and what you have is a book that can't possibly be successfully suppressed.

[SunSeeker]

41. Trump can't block the book.

As the ACLU said in the article:

Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s speech, privacy, and technology project, said Trump’s cease-and-desist lawsuit had no chance of success. “Even Donald’s Trump’s lawyers aren’t crazy enough to present this to a court,” he said. “It would be extraordinary and unprecedented for a court to respond to these claims by blocking publication. That is not going to happen.

[Bengus81]

43. Now now....our Fuehrer doesn't like this book!!!

It should never be published and the author em...."disappeared"

[catbyte]

45. LOL. Good luck with that.

[IMG][/IMG]

[enid602]

48. TRump

I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of the royalties go to tRump. And the rights for the movie, its sequel and the Reality TV Show. Maybe he'll dump Melania and hook up with one of the Kardashians. One of the younger ones.

[Cattledog]

53. He really thinks this is Russia.

[spiderpig]

56. MSNBC just announced the publisher is changing the release date

from January 9 to tomorrow.

[riversedge]

62. per the article, looks like publisher wants to release early if I read it right