Washington, January 5 (RHC-Agencies) -- An explosive book on President Donald Trump’s first year in the White House hit the shelves Friday, earlier than expected, after Trump’s legal team threatened to sue the publisher for defamation and libel.

Dozens queued in Washington for the middle-of-the-night release of the book that has sparked a dramatic, public feud between Donald Trump and his former aide, Steve Bannon.

Henry Holt & Co, the publisher of Michael Wolff’s book ‘Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,’ allowed retailers to begin selling the book four days ahead of schedule citing “unprecedented demand,” a Henry Holt spokeswoman told CNN.

The decision to speed up the release came only hours after Trump’s lawyers sent a cease and desist letter to Wolff and his publisher, said CNN.

According to the Washington Post, the letter accuses Wolff and Rubin of publishing “false” and “baseless” statements about Trump.

Excerpts of Wolff’s book were published by New York Magazine Wednesday in an article entitled “Donald Trump Didn’t Want to Be President.”

That day, the book quickly jumped to number one on Amazon's best-seller list, where it still remains due to thousands of pre-orders.

In his book, Wolff portrays the White House as divided and chaotic and quotes Bannon describing a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between a Russian lawyer and Trump’s son and son-in-law as “treasonous.”

On Wednesday, Trump fired back with an official statement from the White House, attacking Bannon for leaking false information to the media in order to “make himself seem far more important that he was.”