We’re still two weeks away from the pub date of a new book by the current or former senior White House official known as Anonymous, but the fireworks have already begun. On Monday, the Department of Justice fired off a letter to the author’s agents and publisher, advising them that “publication of the book may violate that official’s legal obligations under one or more nondisclosure agreements.” The response to the DOJ was, more or less: Take a hike. Now, everyone’s waiting to see if the government will turn up the heat, which would be a moot point: Shipments are already en route to bookstores, so the genie’s not going back in the bottle. Journalists, meanwhile, are no doubt pulling out all the usual tricks to try to get their hands on the soon-to-be best seller, A Warning, which hits shelves on November 19 via Hachette’s Twelve imprint. As the thinking goes, it’s not a matter of if the book will leak prematurely—it’s a matter of when.
Until then, the chattering classes will just have to settle for the familiar parlor games about what sort of shocking new revelations A Warning will contain, and whether they will even be damaging to a president who still packs arenas full of believers even as the case against his fitness seems to metastasize by the day. The book is the latest in a series of sensational White House tell-alls chronicling the stomach-churning, can’t-make-this-stuff-up inner workings of the Trump administration, which in turn tends to dismiss such works as fabulist takedowns driven by ax-grinding anonymous sources. A Warning is, of course, the first such tell-all in which it ain’t just the sources who are anonymous. The author is the same unidentified person who wrote last year’s explosive New York Times op-ed describing “many of the senior officials in [Trump’s] own administration…working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.” The author, who did not take an advance and plans to donate a substantial portion of the royalties to First Amendment organizations and other nonprofits, has faced criticism for maintaining their veil even as a slew of officials have been marching down to Capitol Hill to testify about Trump’s Ukraine dealings in the House impeachment inquiry.
The original, 965-word op-ed, “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration,” dropped a number of bread crumbs, most notably the one about “early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment.” Now the author has been given 272 pages in which to elaborate on all of that, including specific meetings, discussions, and quotations from Trump himself. I’m told A Warning will include, for instance, more detail about the 25th Amendment conversations, Trump’s decision-making on matters like national security and intelligence, and the administration’s “attacks on Democratic institutions.” The book will expose “bizarre ideas, misconduct, and illegality—fresh angles to pursue for people who want to look into the administration,” said someone familiar with what’s in it.
As the New York Times reported on Friday, the book’s publisher and agents—D.C. power duo Matt Latimer and Keith Urbahn of Javelin—have gone to elaborate lengths to protect the author’s anonymity. (Burner phones, clandestine tête-à-têtes, closed Wi-Fi systems, etc.) There was a specific concern about foreign intelligence services—namely those of Israel, Russia, or China—unmasking the author, according to the person familiar with the book.
Prior to their introduction to Anonymous earlier this year, Latimer and Urbahn had their own theories about who it might be. After the op-ed was published, they approached suspects one by one, and they chased additional leads about the author’s identity gleaned from contacts in the administration and the press. If someone offered a compelling tip that it might be so-and-so, they emailed so-and-so, casually asking if that person might be interested in doing a book at some point. If so-and-so was, in fact, Anonymous, then the door would be open. The agents, who have sold big-ticket books by former government officials like James Comey, John Bolton, and Cliff Sims, were basically shaking the trees, and eventually, the apple fell into their laps. In late spring, they got an invitation for a secretive meeting with someone described as a senior administration official, who told them, “I am Anonymous.”
Whether their identity will indeed remain under wraps is the big question. “It’ll surely be a commercial hit, but the expectations have been set awfully high, and the real fun will come when the clock starts ticking on how long this author can remain anonymous,” said a high-level publishing source who is not involved in the project. “At some point, the mask will probably fall, and then what? The contrast with the people who are now testifying in Congress doesn’t reflect too well on this writer who’s still hiding.” One White House correspondent told me, “If the book has vivid scenes, the assumption is that people may have a better chance at guessing.” Another echoed, “If, as advertised, it’s going to describe scenes with Trump, it’s going to be fairly easy to triangulate and figure out who was in the room.” Not so fast. “It was written in a way so that the author could shield who they are,” the person familiar with the book told me, adding that the author is “totally prepared” for the possibility that the cat may come out of the bag.
In a way, the guessing game is more fun. (Depending on the impressiveness of the author’s true identity, it could also be better for sales.) Perhaps the most obvious question is whether the author is still in the White House orbit. The jacket describes them as “A Senior Trump Administration Official.” Some reporters, however, are skeptical that they still work for the administration. At the very least, it now seems clear that the author is someone who has had significant face time with Trump, but lots of people have. Beyond that, we really don’t know anything more about the author than we did a year ago.
All sorts of theories have been tossed around, both publicly and in private conversations among Beltway insiders: It’s Mike Pence. It’s Kellyanne Conway. It’s Nikki Haley. It’s Jon Huntsman. A number of under-the-radar suspects have been suggested as well. As my colleague Gabriel Sherman reported last year, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are said to have theorized that the op-ed was written by John Kelly’s deputy chief of staff, Zachary Fuentes. Others have floated names like Dan Coats, Jon Lerner, and Nick Ayers.
One of the most plausible theories may be the least satisfying of all—that Anonymous is an Alexander Vindman type, “a CIA analyst or National Security Council official who no one’s ever heard of,” but who nonetheless has legit proximity and credentials, said one of my White House correspondent sources. “In that case, it could be someone great…. Reporters who are actually well-sourced probably have the same view as me. I haven’t heard a serious reporter who thinks it’s a really high-profile member of the Trump administration.”
Anonymous has agreed to give a media interview as part of the book rollout, and the Javelin guys and the publisher are in the process of figuring out who the lucky news organization will be among the dozens worldwide that put in requests. The major networks have offered to film the author in shadow with his or her voice disguised, but a more likely option might be to go with a major newspaper, perhaps in collaboration with a broadcast outlet that would get an early look for its viewers. There’s already Hollywood interest too—Javelin and the publisher have received queries from various talent agents and producers over the past couple of weeks.
For journalists, all of that makes the case for scooping the author’s identity even more compelling. “They’re doing an interview and putting themselves out there, and given what we’re seeing on the Hill with people putting their names to testimony, I don’t think you could make some case that you’re endangering them,” said one of the White House correspondents I spoke with. “I’d report it in a heartbeat.”
— How one industry is bleeding Wall Street dry of talent
— Ronan Farrow’s producer reveals how NBC killed its Weinstein story
— Ivanka’s $360 million deal is raising eyebrows at the FBI
— The big turn for Elizabeth Warren’s campaign
— Why a leading neurocriminologist left Joker completely stunned
— The Fox News movie’s uncanny depictions of the network’s drama
— From the Archive: The real-life story of the security guard turned bombing suspect at the heart of Clint Eastwood’s latest movie
Looking for more? Sign up for our daily Hive newsletter and never miss a story.