SARAH PALIN IS threatening to sue the author and a publisher of a book which alleges that she used drugs and had affairs.

The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin was published recently to widespread publicity with veteran political author Joe McGinniss making a series of sensational claims.

Among the claims were that the former governor of Alaska and one time US vice presidential nominee had a one-night stand with a future NBA star, cheated on her husband, and that she snorted cocaine off an overturned oil drum.

The book gives an unflattering portrayal of Palin and has been widely panned by critics including the New York Times which dismissed it in large parts as “unsubstantiated gossip”.

Now Reuters reports that McGinniss, who moved into a house next door to the Palin family in Alaska while writing the book, and Crown Publishing could face legal action for defaming her.

A letter from her lawyer, John Tiemessen reads: “This book contains a series of lies and rumors presented as fact and combined with ‘anonymous’ sources.’”

The letter reportedly cites an email from McGinniss to an Alaskan political blogger in which he is said to have expressed skepticism about unsubstantiated reports regarding Palin’s personal life that Tiemessen says were included in the book.

The email has been published by conservative journalist Andrew Brietbart and states that McGinniss wrote:

Legal review of my manuscript is underway and here’s my problem: no one has ever offered documentation of any of the lurid stories about the Palins.

The book has already generated a hostile reaction from the Palin family with her husband Todd slamming McGinniss’s “creepy obsession with my wife” and dismissing the book as “full of disgusting lies, innuendo and smears.”

Read: Sarah Palin used drugs and had affairs? A new biography says so >