On Wednesday night, a lawyer for President Trump, Charles Harder, sent a cease-and-desist letter to publisher Henry Holt, warning it to stop "any further publication, release, or dissemination" of Michael Wolff's book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. Instead, Henry Holt announced Thursday that it pushed up the release date by five days. "Due to unprecedented demand, we are moving the on-sale date for all formats of Fire and Fury, by Michael Wolff, to Friday, Jan. 5, at 9 a.m. ET," the publisher said. Book sellers were informed of the decision earlier in the day.
Wolff thanked Trump — and presumably Trump's decision to try to stop publication of the book — for the free publicity.
Wolff will also appear on NBC's Today on Friday, a few days earlier than scheduled. Juicy excerpts from the book and quotes from Stephen Bannon and other Trump insiders had already pushed the unreleased book to No. 1 on Amazon, and Trump's furious pushback almost certainly pushed sales much higher.
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Henry Holt said it had received Harder's cease-and-desist letter but wasn't swayed by it. "We see Fire and Fury as an extraordinary contribution to our national discourse, and are proceeding with the publication of the book," a spokesman said. Legal experts say the threats of a lawsuit are probably hollow.
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