About the inclusion of audio recordings of an interview the former commander-in-chief conducted with the seasoned reporter in an audiobook released last year, former President Donald Trump is suing writer Bob Woodward and his publisher for close to $50 million.
In his lawsuit, Trump, 76, claims that he never consented to include 19 taped interviews for Woodward’s 2020 book “Rage” in the audiobook “The Trump Tapes,” which was released by Simon & Schuster Inc. last year.
Trump’s attorneys claim in the 31-page document that the issue revolves around Bob Woodward’s “systematic usurpation, manipulation, and exploitation of recordings of President Trump acquired in connection with a series of interviews conducted by Mr. Woodward.”
According to the lawsuit, Woodward decided to compile the recorded Trump interviews into a new audiobook after the publication of “Rage” because his previous Trump book, “Fear,” which was published in 2018, performed poorly. Woodward allegedly did this in an effort “to exploit, usurp, and capitalize” on the taped Trump interviews.
“With the release of Rage, Woodward undoubtedly planned to surpass the popularity of Fear, but he was unable to do so. The lawsuit asserts that Woodward “decided to abuse, usurp, and monetize upon President Trump’s voice by publishing the Interview Sound Recordings of their interviews with President Trump in the form of an audiobook after realizing that Rage was a complete and total flop.
The lawsuit claims that President Trump has suffered significant harm due to the defendants’ continued, coordinated efforts to make money off the protected audio recordings and the works they have distributed that were produced from the tapes.
Along with Woodward, Simon & Schuster and Paramount Global, the publication’s parent company, are named as defendants in the lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida. The case demands more than $49 million in damages.
According to CNBC, more than two million copies of “The Trump Tapes” were sold for $24.99 each.
Trump filed a $475 million lawsuit against CNN for punitive damages in October, alleging defamation and asserting that the network had engaged in a “campaign of libel and slander” against him.
Trump and his attorney were ordered by a Florida judge earlier this month to pay over $1 million in sanctions to reimburse the legal fees for Hillary Clinton and the many other defendants in one of the former commander-in-chief’s unsuccessful lawsuits alleging a plot to have him prosecuted.
