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Last year journalistMichael Wolffmade a raft of headlines about his book Fire and Fury, a sensational — and controversial — inside look at PresidentDonald Trump‘s White House.
Based on what Wolff said was a startling amount of access to the West Wing and administration officials, his book conjured vivid scenes of the president and his staff behind closed doors, including claims about Trump’s crude, childlike habits and temperament.
The result was millions of copies sold, a deluge of press coverage … and detailed denials about Wolff’s reporting.
Steve Bannon, the president’s former chief strategist and a notorious media gadfly, was widely viewed as the key source for Wolff’s book and his quotesestranged him from Trump’s circle.
The book seems poised to repeat, even on a smaller scale, the circus-like cycle of attention that surroundedFire and Fury.
Though advance copies have not officially been released to the press, news outlets includingThe GuardianandThe New YorkTimeshave managed to see the book already and report on some of its purported bombshells. Accordingto theTimes, the book covers February 2018 through the end of the Russia investigation in March.
According to both newspapers, Wolff claims inSiegethat Robert Mueller’s team went so far as to draft an indictment against President Trump during the Russia investigation but ultimately scuttled that plan.
But Wolff’s reporting goes further: He contends he obtained the actual draft indictment itself.
Impossible, says Mueller’s team.
In a rare statement to PEOPLE and other outlets, his spokesman, Peter Carr, sharply disputed Wolff’s assertions.
“The documents described do not exist,” Carr said.
In his report about his investigation, Mueller declined to determine whether President Trump’s efforts to control the probe amounted to illegal obstruction. Instead, Mueller implied that question should be left to Congress — and he conspicuously did not either accuse or exonerate Trump on the matter.
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A White House spokesman declined to comment on the record about the book. But government officials are already lining up what they point to as clear logical inconsistencies in Wolff’s reporting.
Speaking with theTimes, Wolff defended the part ofSiegeabout the alleged draft indictment.
“My source is impeccable, and I have no doubt about the authenticity and the significance of the documents,” he said. (He did not immediately return a message from PEOPLE.)
Last January, the president blastedFire and Furyas nonsense, and one of his attorneys threatened to try and block its publication — a spectacle that helped drive sales.
The White House at the time dismissedFire and Furyas “trashy tabloid fiction.”
In the acknowledgments for his new book, Wolff again points to Bannon as a source, describing him as “the Virgil anyone might be lucky to have as a guide for a descent into Trumpworld,” according to theTimes.
source: people.com
