Trump lawsuit claims Woodward audiobook infringes copyright

PENSACOLA, Fla. – Former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against journalist Bob Woodward on Monday, claiming he was never allowed to publish interview recordings made for the book “Rage.”

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Pensacola, Fla., against Woodward, his publisher Simon & Schuster Inc. and the publisher’s parent company Paramount Global. Trump’s lawyers are seeking nearly $50 million in damages.

Simon & Schuster and Woodward released a joint response saying Trump’s lawsuit was unfounded and they were aggressively fighting it.

“All of these interviews were on file and were recorded with the knowledge and consent of President Trump,” the statement said. “In addition, 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 favor.”

The lawsuit alleges Trump agreed to be taped for a series of interviews between December 2019 and August 2020, but only for a book Woodward was working on. “Rage” was released in September 2021. Trump alleges that Woodward and Simon & Schuster Inc. violated his copyright by releasing the audio recordings as “The Trump Tapes: Bob Woodward’s Twenty Interviews with President Donald Trump” in November 2022.

The copyright lawsuit comes just weeks after one The federal judge in West Palm Beach sanctioned Trump and one of his attorneysand ordered her to pay nearly $1 million to file what the judge says was a bogus lawsuit against Trump’s rival Hillary Clinton and others in 2016.

U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks, in a Jan. 19 filing filed Jan. 19, accused Trump of a “pattern of abuse of the courts” for filing frivolous lawsuits for political purposes that he says “undermine the rule of law” and “obstructing a person equal to justice”. .”

Citing Trump’s recent lawsuit against the Pulitzer Prize board, the New York Attorney General, big tech companies and CNN, Middlebrooks described Trump as “a prolific and cunning litigator” who uses the courts “to exact revenge on political opponents.”