President Donald Trump's legal team later Wednesday sent Bannon his own "cease and desist" letter. | Evan Vucci/AP Trump lawyer sends 'cease and desist' letter to 'Fire and Fury' author, publisher

A legal representative for President Donald Trump on Thursday called for the author and publisher of a forthcoming book on the White House to "immediately cease and desist" from releasing it, alleging it contains libelous and defamatory information.

In a letter addressed to writer Michael Wolff and Steve Rubin, the president of the book's publisher, Henry Holt and Co., lawyer Charles Harder said his team was "investigating numerous false and/or baseless statements" made about the president in the upcoming book, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House."


Harder wrote that publishing the book would be tantamount to "defamation by libel" and called on Rubin and Wolff to halt distribution of the book, which is set to be released next Tuesday.

"Mr. Trump hereby demands that you immediately cease and desist from any further publication, release or dissemination of the Book," Harder wrote.

POLITICO Playbook newsletter Sign up today to receive the #1-rated newsletter in politics Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Representatives for Wolff and Henry Holt and Co. did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Early excerpts of the book set off a firestorm of criticism from the White House on Wednesday, after it was revealed that Wolff cited former Trump adviser Steve Bannon saying he viewed a meeting attended by top Trump campaign officials — including the president's son Donald Trump Jr. — and a Kremlin-connected lawyer at Trump Tower as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic."

The report, first published by The Guardian, prompted a scorching personal rebuke from Trump, who said in a statement that after exiting the White House his former chief strategist "not only lost his job, he lost his mind.”

Trump's legal team later Wednesday sent Bannon his own "cease and desist" letter, alleging he had violated an agreement he had signed vowing not to disclose confidential or damaging information about Trump and his family.

Additional excerpts of the book published in New York magazine depicted various instances of internal strife in the Trump West Wing.