From 2019 to 2020, former President Donald Trump gave multiple interviews to journalist Bob Woodward. Woodward was writing a book entitled, “Rage” about the Trump presidency, and the interviews were conducted to gather information for the books. The interviews were recorded, and came to be known as the “Trump Tapes.”

An audiobook containing the interviews was released last October and called “The Trump Tapes: Bob Woodward’s Twenty Interviews with President Donald Trump. The audiobook did very well, in fact better than Woodward’s several other books about the former president.

Former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against Woodward and his publishers, Simon & Schuster, and Paramount Global, for almost $50 million, claiming that he did not give consent to the reporter/author to publish audio of their interviews as an audiobook. 

Trump’s lawyers filed the suit on Monday, January 30, in the northern district of Florida. They claimed the suit was based on the journalist’s manipulation, usurpation, and exploitation of former president Trump’s interviews. They say the recordings were supposed to be used exclusively for the book Woodward was writing. 

The lawsuit says that Trump told Woodward on several occasions that the recordings had a limited license and therefore retained to himself all other rights, including the commercialization of the narration.

On Monday night, Trump said that Woodward and his team were illegally profiting off his voice and attempting to make him look bad.

The audiobook has been made into CDs, e-books, and paperbacks.

Publisher Simon & Schuster and Bob Woodward released a joint statement saying Trump’s lawsuit is without merit, and that they will defend themselves in court.

“All these interviews were on the record and recorded with President Trump’s knowledge and agreement,” the statement said. “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 favor.”