Former President Donald Trump has found a new foe in court -- the same journalist that broke the Richard Nixon Watergate scandal and who Trump talked to nearly two dozen times over eight months.
Trump is suing Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward, who he collaborated on a book with, stating that he allowed Woodward to record their conversations for the sole purpose of being used only for the book, "Rage."
The lawsuit alleges that Woodward along with publishing company Simon & Schuster and parent company Paramount Global did not have the legal rights to use recordings from the interview for an audiobook, "The Trump Tapes," that was released in October 2022.
Trump's lawsuit states that Simon & Schuster and Paramount Global illegally profited from the tapes, and he is seeking nearly $50 million in damages. The figure comes from a future sales projection of 2 million audiobook copies being sold at $24.99.
According to Bloomberg, Trump's interviews with Woodward began in 2016 when he was still a candidate for president. The two spoke in 19 designated interviews between December 2019 and August 2020. Trump claims that he never gave a verbal or written agreement to any of the recordings being shared with the public in any format or platform.
In the legal filings Trump's attorneys stated, "This case centers on Mr. Woodward's systematic usurpation, manipulation and exploitation of audio of President Trump."
Paramount Global or Simon & Schuster have not supplied public comment on the case.
