President Trump’s former deputy national security adviser Victoria Coates could take legal action in response to new allegations that she is the “Anonymous” author behind a tell-all book.
Coates denied she wrote the book and a New York Times op-ed that were critical of Trump after RealClearInvestigations published a story last week claiming a monthslong White House investigation identified Coates as “Anonymous.” The story cited “people familiar with the internal probe.”
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Coates declined to comment on the record for the story, but she issued a denial Sunday.
“The allegations published in Real Clear Investigations are utterly false. I am not Anonymous, and I do not know who Anonymous is,” Coates said in a statement.
Cleta Mitchell, Coates’s lawyer, claimed the news outlet “peddled false statements citing only anonymous sources, despite on-the-record denials from Javelin LLC (the literary agent for Anonymous), the White House, and three well-respected members of the Trump Administration — and now Dr. Coates as well.”
“We are continuing to explore all available legal options,” Mitchell said in a statement.
Coates was reassigned to the Energy Department in February, at which time a senior administration official told Axios: “The White House leadership rejects rumors that have circulated recently and does not put any stock in the suggestion that Victoria Coates is the author of A Warning or the related op-ed in the New York Times.”
The White House said Coates’s move to another role in the administration had nothing to do with the speculation that she was the author.
