President Trump's former attorney John Dowd is disputing details in a new book by Bob Woodward that describes him calling Trump a "fucking liar" and cautioning the president that he could end up wearing "an orange jump suit."
Dowd said the book, "Fear: Trump in the White House," misquotes him and describes events that did not happen, including a mock interview he allegedly conducted with Trump in January.
Woodward wrote that Dowd staged the mock interview and saw the "full nightmare" of possibilities if Trump were to sit down with special counsel Robert Mueller, as Trump acted as an "aggrieved Shakespearean king" prone to lying.
According to the book, Dowd and fellow Trump attorney Jay Sekulow went to Mueller's office and re-enacted the mock interview in March, with the defense attorneys arguing Trump was incapable of truthful testimony.
"He just made something up. That's his nature," Dowd told Mueller, according to excerpts published Tuesday by CNN. The Washington Post, which also excerpted the book, reported that the mock interview occurred Jan. 27, with the Mueller meeting on March 5.
Dowd reportedly warned Trump, "Don't testify. It's either that or an orange jump suit," before resigning when Trump insisted that he would be a good witness in his own defense. Dowd, who reportedly feared perjury charges, left Trump's legal team in late March, after nearly a year.
He reportedly thought to himself about Trump, "You're a fucking liar," though it's unclear how this quote was uttered before being reported by Woodward.
Dowd denied the accuracy of Woodward's reporting, telling the Washington Examiner that he never described Trump as a "fucking liar," warned Trump he risked an "orange jump suit," or described Trump's interview prep to Mueller.
"I do not intend to address every inaccurate statement attributed to me – but I do want to make this clear: there was no so-called ‘practice session’ or ‘re-enactment’ of a mock interview at the Special Counsel’s office," Dowd said in an email. "Further, I did not refer to the president as a 'liar' and did not say that he was likely to end up in an ‘orange jump suit’. It was a great honor and distinct privilege to serve President Trump."
Dowd said that Woodward's book, which will be released Sept. 11, "appears to be the most recent in an endless cycle of accusations and misrepresentations based on anonymous statements from unknown malcontents."
Sekulow, who reportedly accompanied Dowd to Mueller's office, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in an interview with Time magazine also said that the legal team did not perform a mock interview with Trump in January, and that he did not attend a March meeting with Mueller.
A spokesman for Mueller's office declined to confirm or deny that the alleged March 5 meeting occurred.
The new book includes many incendiary quotes attributed to Trump or senior officials. It quotes White House chief of staff John Kelly calling Trump "unhinged" and saying at a staff meeting: "He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in Crazytown."
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis reportedly said Trump has the understanding of "a fifth or sixth grader."
The book reportedly provides additional context to former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson calling Trump "a fucking moron," a pejorative widely seen as contributing to Tillerson's firing on Twitter.
Woodward did not interview Trump for the book, but the president called him last month, ahead of the release. " I think there’s nothing in this book that doesn’t come from a firsthand source," Woodward told the president.
[ Also read: Woodward’s ‘Fear’ No. 12 on Amazon before release, wants $60 for talk]
