Former President Donald Trump sued Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward because he did not agree to the inclusion of audio recordings that took place between the two in an audiobook.
NEW: Trump Sues “Journalist” Bob Woodward for Releasing Interview Recordings, Seeking $49M in Damages.https://t.co/cUjCOeEFEz
— Alex Bruesewitz 🇺🇸 (@alexbruesewitz) January 30, 2023
The “Trump tapes” were released in 2022 under the heading “Bob Woodward’s Twenty Interviews With President Donald Trump.”
The tapes include 19 interviews between Trump and Woodward.
At the beginning of the audiobook, Woodward claims:
“I wanted to put as much of Trump’s voice, his own words, out there for the historical record so people can hear and make their own assessments.”
Trump is seeking just under $50 million in damages, a figure his lawyers came up with after looking at sales of “Fear”, a book written by Woodward.
The lawyers multiplied the price of the audiotape by the copies sold, which totaled $50 million.
“Based upon the purchase price of the audiotape, $24.99, the damages President Trump has sustained due to the actions of the defendants as set forth herein are estimated to be at least $49,980,000.00, exclusive of punitive damages, attorney’s fees, and costs,” they said.
In the lawsuit filed against Woodward, Trump says that his case “centers on Mr. Woodward’s systematic usurpation, manipulation and exploitation of audio of President Trump.”
On Truth Social Trump said that Woodward was only trying to “profiteer” from publishing the audio tapes:
“Woodward and his corporate bosses not only tried to profiteer from doctoring tapes, which were only to be used for the written word, namely help in accuracy for his book. This was an open and blatant attempt to make me look as bad as possible. They have instead been exposed for the liars and forgers that they are,” he said.
“I will always champion TRUTH and battle against the evil forces of disinformation and fake news,” Trump added.
Woodward and his publisher say that his lawsuit is “without merit.”
Trump is demanding that the court issue a declaratory judgment stating that “President Trump has a full copyright interest in the interview sound recordings, audiobook, and derivative works at issue.”
Woodward’s publisher, Simon & Schuster and its parent company, Paramount Global, were named as the defendants in the case.
