“According to a source close to the situation, the Clintons called people on the board of NBC’s parent company General Electric to say, ‘Well, this is outrageous, how NBC News and MSNBC are handling this, and we need to do something about it,’” Halper writes. “Before long, GE’s chairman Jeffrey Immelt, was on the phone with Jeff Zucker, the president and CEO of NBC Universal at the time, and (former NBC News president) Steve Capus asking, ‘What the hell is going on over there? Why are my board members talking about the reporter, and why is your reporter referring to Chelsea as a prostitute?’”

The strife between Shuster and the Clintons was well documented during the 2008 campaign and a series of heated emails between Shuster and Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson were published by POLITICO at the time. At one point, the Clinton campaign threatened to pull out of a debate hosted by NBC News.

In the book, Halper notes that Wolfson also purposely didn’t connect Shuster to the Clintons when he wanted to personally apologize, instead telling him to email Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Wolfson then went to the press and said Shuster was refusing to apologize.