Steve Bannon has turned to Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan following the explosive allegations made in journalist Michael Wolff’s exposé on the White House, The Lawyer understands.
The embattled former adviser to Donald Trump is understood to have instructed the firm’s co-managing partner in Washington DC Bill Burck, who has been drafted in to defend Bannon, a former editor of Breitbart News, against accusations of defamation in Wolff’s controversial book, Fire and Fury.
Charles Harder of Harder Mirell & Abrams, who is representing both the President and the Trump campaign, has said that allegations made by Bannon “give rise to numerous legal claims including defamation by libel and slander, and breach of his written confidentiality and non-disparagement agreement with our clients”.
The most serious allegation Bannon made against the Trump administration was that a meeting between his son and a Kremlin-backed lawyer on 20 June at Trump Tower was “treasonous” and “unpatriotic”.
The explosive book was published at a time when the the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is looking into allegations that the Trump and his closest aides may have allowed Russia to influence the outcome of the election through the hacking of social media sites and the emails of Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton.
Burck, who is a former special counsel and deputy counsel to George W Bush, is also representing Bannon solely in the House of Representatives intelligence committee interview relating to his time as campaign chairman for Trump.
He will not act for Bannon regarding his work for Trump in the transition period or his time at the White House.
Other high-profile White House figures to have turned to Burck include former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and incumbent White House counsel and lawyer Don McGahn, who have already faced questioning by Mueller.
