Senior Trump campaign officials slammed author Michael Wolff on Wednesday, saying they collectively decided to rebuff his interview requests.
"A number of us have received inquiries from the disgraced author Michael Wolff, whose previous work can only be described as fiction," the Trump staffers wrote. "He is a known peddler of fake news who routinely concocts situations, conversations, and conclusions that never happened.
"As a group, we have decided not to respond to his bad faith inquiries, and we encourage others to completely disregard whatever nonsense he eventually publishes. Consider this our blanket response to whatever he writes."
Trump's co-campaign managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, who has been named incoming White House chief of staff, were among the signers.
Wolff, a two-time National Magazine Award winner, is a veteran journalist and the author of a bestselling trilogy on the first Trump administration. The first book in the series, "Fire and Fury," sold more than 4 million copies and detailed the early days of Trump's first tenure.
Wolff was accused of playing fast and loose with the facts in "Fire and Fury," but he told The New York Times in 2019 that later accounts of the Trump White House confirmed his version of events.
"Literally every book, every account since has either repeated 'Fire and Fury' in many of its specifics, or confirmed virtually everything that I wrote about in that book," he said.
Wolff told the outlet he did not contact Trump for the book, saying his obligation was "to come as close to the truth as I possibly can."
"And that's not as close to someone else's truth, but the truth as I see it," he said at the time. "Remember, it's a difference between a book and something else — you don't have to read my book, you don't have to agree with my book. But at the end of the day, what you are going to know is that it is my book. It is my vision. It is my report on my experience."
Wednesday's joint statement appears to be the first indication that Wolff is writing a new book.
Other statement signatories included incoming Communications Director Steven Cheung, senior adviser Danielle Alvarez, incoming Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislative, Political and Public Affairs James Blair, Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio, incoming Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications and Personnel Taylor Budowich, Deputy Campaign Manager Justin Caporale, campaign speechwriter Vince Haley, senior adviser Brian Hughes, senior adviser Jason Miller, spokesman Tim Murtaugh, data consultant Tim Saler, Donald Trump Jr. spokesman Andrew Surabian, and pollster Travis Tunis.
Wolff this month released audio tapes on the Fire and Fury podcast series of convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein allegedly talking about his relationship with Trump. Wolff claims there are approximately 100 hours of the tapes, which he said were created in 2017.
In response, incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt reportedly blasted Wolff as "a disgraced writer who routinely fabricates lies in order to sell fiction books because he clearly has no morals or ethics."
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