Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against legendary Washington Post writer Bob Woodward for a little under $50 million, saying that he didn’t give his consent for the publication of tapes of their discussions as an audiobook. 

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The parent firm of Paramount Global and the publisher of Woodward, Simon & Schuster, were also named as defendants.

Woodward and Simon & Schuster stated in a joint statement on Monday that the case was “without merit and we will aggressively defend against it.”

This case centers on Woodward’s systematic usurpation, manipulation, and exploitation of audio of President Trump gathered in connection with a series of interviews conducted by Woodward,” Trump’s lawyers argue in the 31-page filing.

The Trump Tapes, also known as Bob Woodward’s Twenty Interviews With President Donald Trump, were published in October 2022. 

The Guardian dubbed the audiobook “a passport to the heart of darkness” of Trump’s presidency among mostly favorable reviews. 

Concerning Trump and his administration, Woodward also penned three print bestsellers, Fear, Rage, and Peril, the latter of which he co-wrote with Robert Costa. The majority of the interviews that made up The Trump Tapes took place between December 2019 and August 2020, when Woodward was writing Rage.

“In publishing Rage, Woodward clearly hoped to replicate the success of Fear, but he failed to do so. Faced with the reality that Rage was a complete and total failure, Woodward decided to exploit, usurp, and capitalize upon President Trump’s voice by releasing the Interview Sound Recordings of their interviews with President Trump in the form of an audiobook,” the suit claims. 

“The Defendants’ ongoing concerted efforts to profit off the protected audio recordings and the works they have distributed derived from the protected audio recordings have caused President Trump to sustain substantial damage.”

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Net worth 

The most well-known American journalist, Bob Woodward, has an estimated net worth of roughly $30 million, according to a number of web publications (Wikipedia, Forbes, Bloomberg). Following the Watergate scandal, Bob Woodward gained notoriety as an investigative journalist. 

His extensive career as an investigative journalist has increased his net worth, and he also began to get money when he gained popularity on television due to his reporting on the Watergate scandal. His income also grew as a result of his professional advancement, which was made possible by this case. Additionally, Woodward has made television appearances.

Years of employment in the same business and industry have given him the financial means to hold the post of associate editor at The Washington Post. Additionally, he earns money from the sales of his books, which have already sold millions of copies worldwide.

Age

Bob Woodward was born on the 26th of March 1943 and he is currently 79 years old. He was born in Geneva, Illinois. 

Career

He began his career in the US Navy, and after five years of duty, he has managed significant projects for the US Navy. He has been employed with The Washington Post since 1971. His reporting on the Watergate scandal, which resulted in President Richard Nixon’s resignation, was one of his career’s major projects. In the early phases of his career as an investigative journalist, it was a significant opportunity.

For his work as a journalist, he has won numerous honors over the course of his career. He was given the Heywood Broun award and the American journalism award in 1972. Additionally, he has received the George Polk Award and the Sigma Delta Chi Award. He also received the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award, which was given for brave journalism. He has also received numerous additional honors over the years, including the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism.

Relationships

Woodward has had three marriages. His first marriage, which lasted from 1966 to 1969, was to an English professor and high school sweetheart Kathleen Middlekauff. Frances Kuper was his wife for two years, from 1974 until 1979. Elsa Walsh (born August 25, 1957), a writer for The New Yorker and the author of Divided Lives: The Public and Private Struggles of Three American Women, was his third wife when they wed in 1989. 

Tali, his eldest child, is a journalist as well. She spent six years as the graduate journalism program director at Columbia University before joining The Trace as an editor.

Family

He is the son of Jane and Alfred E. Woodward, a former attorney who rose to become the 18th Judicial Circuit Court’s chief judge. He was raised in the Illinois community of Wheaton. He grew up with his father and his one sister after his parents split up when he was just twelve years old.