Even though President Trump has disavowed him and the president’s lawyers have threatened legal action against him, Steve Bannon says he remains a staunch supporter.
On “Breitbart News Tonight” Sirius XM radio show, hosted Thursday night by Bannon himself, the former chief White House strategist fielded calls, among them one that mentioned Mr. Trump’s statement about Bannon. Bannon told the caller “the president of the United States is a great man. You know I support him day in and day out.”
Earlier Thursday, after excerpts from an upcoming book, for which Bannon was a source, portrayed the president in an unflattering light, Mr. Trump ripped Bannon in a statement, saying that Bannon had “lost his mind” after he was ousted from the White House. And later, Trump lawyer Charles Harder sent a cease-and-desist letter to Bannon that accused him of violating a nondisclosure agreement by talking with the author of the book, Michael Wolff.
The letter threatens Bannon with monetary claims against him for violating the agreement, although the letter does not say when such an agreement went into effect and whether it explicitly applies to disclosures made by Bannon while he worked at the White House. The NDA Harder quotes warns against using any confidential information that would be “detrimental to the Company, Mr. Trump, any Family Member, any Trump Company or any Family Member Company.”
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Thursday that Bannon and other Trump administration officials had spoken with Wolff around a dozen times — largely at Bannon’s request.
Mr. Trump’s attorneys have threatened legal action before, though — during the campaign, his lawyers threatened to sue the New York Times in October 2016 for defamation during the campaign regarding a report alleging sexual misconduct. No suit against the Times is known to have been filed by his attorneys.
CBS News’ Arden Farhi contributed to this report.
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