White House labels Woodward book 'reckless', doesn't rule out possibility of lawsuit

The White House on Monday said that the latest book by renowned journalist Bob Woodward is "reckless" and makes outrageous claims which have been refuted by the top US administration officials.

The White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders also did not rule out a lawsuit against Woodward who in his latest book "Fear: Trump in the White House" has portrayed a dysfunctional Trump Administration.

"I'll certainly keep you posted on that," Sanders said when asked if President Donald Trump is considering filing a lawsuit against Woodward.

"We've been extremely clear from the beginning. Many of the book's sources have already spoken out to refute. A couple of them: Chief of Staff John Kelly aggressively pushed back in this. (Defence Secretary) General (rtd James) Mattis aggressively pushing back in the claims. John Dowd also pushing back against the things that are attributed to him, she said.

She said a number of people have come out and said that Woodward never even reached out to corroborate statements that were attributed to them, "which seems incredibly reckless for a book to make such outrageous claims, to not even take the time to get a 10-dollar fact-checker to call around and verify that some of these quotes happened.

"When no effort was made, it seems like a very careless and reckless way to write a book," Sanders said in response to a question.