You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Donald Trump has filed a $50m lawsuit against author Bob Woodward and Simon & Schuster alleging they breached copyright interest by publishing The Trump Tapes: The Historical Record.
The audiobook is based on interviews recorded for Woodward’s book Rage, which was published in 2021. It was described by the publisher at the time of acquisition as “the foundational account of the Trump presidency, its turmoil, contradictions and risks [and] an essential document for any voter seeking an accurate inside view of the Trump years".
Filed in federal court in Pensacola, Florida, the complaint reads: "This case centres on Mr. Woodward’s systematic usurpation, manipulation and exploitation of audio of President Trump gathered in connection with a series of interviews conducted by Mr Woodward. Said audio was protected material, subject to various limitations on use and distribution—as a matter of copyright, licence, contract, basic principles of the publishing industry, and core values of fairness and consent."
The suit seeks a declaratory statement adjudging that Trump has a full copyright interest in the interview sound recordings, audiobook and derivative works or that he has a copyright interest in his responses in them. It seeks punitive damages of $49,980,000 minimum.
Woodward and S&S said: “Former President Trump’s lawsuit is without merit and we will aggressively defend against it. All these interviews were on the record and recorded with President Trump’s knowledge and agreement. Moreover, it is in the public interest to have this historical record in Trump’s own words. We are confident that the facts and the law are in our favour.”
Trump has pursued legal action against S&S previously. In 2020, the Department of Justice sued to block former national security adviser John Bolton’s memoir, The Room Where It Happened. The suit failed. One month later, Trump sued S&S and his niece Mary Trump, seeking to block publication of her memoir, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, a claim which also failed.
In a recent letter, which can be read here, Trump threatened to sue S&S and Mark Pomerantz over the forthcoming publication of the former criminal prosecutor People vs Donald Trump: An Inside Account.