Gorka Acknowledges Being ‘Told’ To Speak To Michael Wolff For Book

on June 22, 2017 in Washington, DC.
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 22: White House Deputy Assistant To The President Sebastian Gorka speaks as he is interviewed by Fox News remotely from the White House June 22, 2017 in Washington, DC. Gorka discussed American... WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 22: White House Deputy Assistant To The President Sebastian Gorka speaks as he is interviewed by Fox News remotely from the White House June 22, 2017 in Washington, DC. Gorka discussed American Otto Warmbier's death after his return from North Korean detention. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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Former White House adviser Sebastian Gorka wrote Monday that he had been told to participate in Michael Wolff’s blockbuster book, “Fire and Fury,” which asserts that President Donald Trump’s own inner circle believes him to be unfit to serve.

Gorka, now a contributor at Fox News, admitted in an op-ed in the Hill that he hadn’t read the book — “I refuse to buy the book of a man who so avowedly holds what, in a previous age, we would have called treasonous goals, but I have read the publicly released excerpts” — but described his interactions with Wolff, who he called “oleaginous.”

He wrote that he had been “told” to speak to Wolff.

“[W]hen I met Michael Wolff in Reince Priebus’ office, where he was waiting to talk to Steve Bannon, and after I had been told to also speak to him for his book, my attitude was polite but firm: ‘Thanks but no thanks,’” Gorka wrote.

Given that top White House staffer Stephen Miller on Sunday called the book a “grotesque work of fiction” and President Donald Trump himself called the work “boring and untruthful” and “Fake,” the admission from Gorka, who left his White House job in August under contested circumstances, is notable. Gorka and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon were colleagues at Breitbart before working in the White House. 

Bannon — now fully out of the Trump circle after telling Wolff that Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with Kremlin-linked Russians was “treasonous” — hasn’t denied that he spoke to Wolff.

Trump has denied talking to Wolff for the book, though the author counted three hours that he’d had with the President before and after the 2016 election.

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