It’s a bold admission from an author who has made his name publishing sensational and sometimes dubious claims about what’s going on inside the White House. Michael Wolff has admitted that he doesn’t feel the need to get a response from the subjects of his stories before he publishes them. Wolff says he can forego the basic journalistic practice because he’s a book writer, not a newspaper journalist. In an interview with The New York Times, the Fire and Fury author was asked about a string of allegations he’s made and whether or not he checked them with the subjects. “I actually don’t believe, if you know the answer, it is necessary to go through the motions of getting an answer that you are absolutely certain of,” he said. “For someone else, a book writer, I don’t have to do [get responses]. When I know something is true, I don’t have to go back and establish some kind of middle ground with whoever I’m writing about, which will allow me at some point to go back to them.” Asked if his new book, Siege: Trump Under Fire, is a work of journalism, the writer responded: “Of course.”