Donald Trump sued Bob Woodward for less than $50 million, alleging that veteran Washington Post reporters did not agree to have tapes of their conversations published as audiobooks.
Woodward publisher Simon & Schuster and its parent company Paramount Global were also named as defendants.
The Trump tape was released in October 2022 with the subtitle Bob Woodward’s 20 Interviews with President Donald Trump.
In a generally positive review, The Guardian called the audiobook President Trump’s “passport to the heart of darkness.”
Woodward has also written three print bestsellers about Trump and his administration. Fear, Anger, Crisis – the last one co-authored with Robert Costa. The interviews that formed The Trump Tapes ran from his December 2019 to August 2020 when Woodward was writing his Rage.
In a lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Florida on Monday, Trump’s attorneys said their case “focuses on Mr. Woodward’s systematic extortion, manipulation and exploitation of President Trump’s voice.” .
They also said one conversation was deceptively edited, citing comparisons to recordings made by Trump aide Hogan Gidley in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, on Dec. 30, 2019. claimed.
According to the complaint, the recording includes an exchange in which Woodward told Trump, “This is also for publishing a book before the election.”
Rage went public in the United States on September 15, 2020, less than two months before Election Day.
Trump is seeking just under $50 million in damages, a figure his attorney says he arrived at after examining Fear’s sales.
“Based on the $24.99 purchase price of the audiotape, damages suffered by President Trump due to the actions of the defendants described herein are estimated to be at least $49,980,000.00, excluding punitive damages, attorneys’ fees, and costs. increase.”
Trump was the first to complain when the audiobook was released. Appearing on CNN, Woodward was asked about Trump’s claim that he “never got permission to release these tapes.”
Woodward said: I used some of it before. I mean, he’s the president, and… so he’s there. And this goes up to the 10th power. ”
Woodward did not immediately comment on Monday, nor did Simon & Schuster and Paramount Global.
Trump is starting to speed up the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, being declared the only candidate in the election.
He has criticized many over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, his financial and campaign finance problems, keeping classified records, and rape allegations by author E Gene Carroll, which Trump denies. faces legal danger in terms of
Trump often accuses his media enemies, including CNN. A case against the New York Attorney General was recently thrown out of court.
Meanwhile, the portion of Trump’s lawsuit against Woodward alleging unauthorized editing includes echoes of the scandal that made the reporter famous: Watergate, which took down Richard Nixon in 1974.
In an exchange published in The Trump Tapes, Woodward and Trump discuss Trump’s initial impeachment and his approach to Ukraine over tainting a political rival.
Trump says the case was the second “peanut” to Watergate.
Woodward said: I am indirectly responsible for this. I’m sorry. Sorry, “that would have been gone.”
“Yeah, Nixon should have done that…but I didn’t do anything wrong, so I shouldn’t have,” Trump said.
