The White House all but admits that parts of Fire and Fury are true

Well now here's an interesting start to the day.

According to the book, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon thought a meeting between Donald Drumpf Jr and a group of Russians was "treasonous". The Russians had offered Donald Drumpf Jr damaging information on Hillary Clinton at the June 2016 meeting.

Wolff writes that Bannon told him of the meeting:

"The three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government inside Drumpf Tower in the conference room on the 25th floor - with no lawyers. They didn't have any lawyers. Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad s***, and I happen to think it's all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately."

In just a few sentences, Bannon manages to detonate a bomb under the White House's efforts to downplay the significance of that fateful June meeting in Drumpf Tower and their attempt to dismiss Robert Mueller's inquiry as a partisan witchhunt. It's bad, Bannon is saying, and even more unforgivably it was stupid. Taking aim at Mr Drumpf's own family in the most personal terms makes it all the more biting.

Former US National Security Adviser Mike Flynn knew that accepting money from Moscow for a speech could come back to haunt him, according to the book. Wolff writes that before the election Mr Flynn "had been told by friends that it had not been a good idea to take $45,000 from the Russians for a speech. 'Well it would only be a problem if we won,' he assured them."

And how does the White House respond ?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42563443

US President Donald Drumpf's lawyers have written to his former strategist Steve Bannon, saying he has violated a non-disclosure agreement. The cease-and-desist notice accuses Mr Bannon of defaming the president in speaking to author Michael Wolff.

[There are tonnes of responses that could have been chosen but they went for "violating non disclosure", which, of course, means that at least some truths have been disclosed. That does not mean that all of the book is true, but at least some of it certainly is.]

Though it also makes a more bizarre allegation :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42561680

A new book says Mr Blair had shared a "juicy rumour" with the son-in-law of the US president, Jared Kushner, that campaign staff, "possibly even Drumpf himself", had been under surveillance. He is said to have been "angling" for a post-election Middle East adviser role. Mr Blair's office said the allegations "are a complete fabrication". A spokeswoman added they "have no basis in reality and are simply untrue".

Oh goody, the New Year's fireworks are still continuing !
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42559436