Donald Trump sues journalist Bob Woodward over audio recordings

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter conducted 19 interviews with former US president from 2019-2020

Former US president Donald Trump claims that Rage author Bob Woodward did not have permission to release the audio recordings. AP

Former US president Donald Trump has announced he is suing Bob Woodward after the journalist released audio recordings of an interview he conducted for his book Rage.

Woodward, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the Watergate scandal five decades ago, conducted 19 interviews with the former president between December 2019 and August 2020.

Rage was published in September 2020 and Woodward published an audiobook on the interviews, called The Trump Tapes, a month later.

The lawsuit — filed against Woodward, publisher Simon & Schuster and parent company Paramount Global — states that Mr Trump did not give permission for Woodward to release the audio of the interviews even though the former president gave him permission to record them.

“This case centres on Mr Woodward’s systematic usurpation, manipulation and exploitation of audio of President Trump,” Mr Trump’s lawyers wrote.

Bob Woodward in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York in 2017. EPA

Mr Trump is seeking close to $50 million in damages.

“This was an open and blatant attempt to make me look as bad as possible,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Simon & Schuster told Bloomberg that Mr Trump's lawsuit is “without merit”.

“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,” the publisher said.

Woodward told CNN that his interviews with Mr Trump were “done voluntarily” and “all on the record”.

Mr Trump has sued media companies before over reports that he found unfavourable to him.

His 2020 presidential campaign filed libel lawsuits against The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN over reporting related to his relationship and business dealings with Russia. Judges in New York and Georgia tossed out the cases against the Times and CNN.

Another lawsuit of Mr Trump's filed against former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and others was similarly tossed by a judge in Florida. In that lawsuit, Mr Trump alleged the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee and other defendants conspired against him by tying his presidential campaign to Russia.

Deriding Mr Trump as a “prolific and sophisticated litigant” who games the court system to “seek revenge on political adversaries”, the judge ordered the former president and his lawyer to pay a $1 million fine.

Watergate scandal — in pictures

Former US president Richard Nixon points to transcripts of tapes after he announced during a televised speech that he would turn them over to House of Representatives impeachment investigators during the Watergate scandal. AP

John Ehrlichman, a key figure in the Watergate scandal, was convicted of conspiracy and perjury and served 18 months in prison. AP

FBI official Mark Felt was the 'Washington Post' informant that helped them break the Watergate story. AP

Nixon tells a group of Republican campaign contributors that he will get to the bottom of the Watergate scandal during a speech on May 9, 1973, in Washington. AP

The Senate Watergate Committee hearings on Capitol Hill in Washington took place in 1973. AP

HR Haldeman, former top Nixon aide, speaks before the Senate Watergate Committee in Washington on July 31, 1973. AP

Named in the Watergate scandal, from left to right, are G Gordon Liddy, White House counsel John W Dean III, former attorney general John Mitchell, and former Nixon deputy campaign manager Jeb Stuart Magruder. AP

Howard Baker, vice chairman of the Senate Watergate Investigating Committee, questions James McCord during a hearing in Washington, on May 18, 1973. AP

Nixon says goodbye with a victorious salute to his staff members outside the White House as he boards a helicopter after resigning the presidency on August 9, 1974. AP

The traumas of Watergate and January 6 are a half century apart, in vastly different eras, and they were about different things. AP

Nixon gives a speech at the White House following his resignation from the presidency after the Watergate scandal. Consolidated News Pictures / AFP

Parking space D32 in the garage underneath the Oakhill Office Building, where 'Washington Post' reporter Bob Woodward would meet his source known as 'Deep Throat' to exchange notes about the Watergate scandal, in Rosslyn, Virginia. Getty Images / AFP

Evidence from the Watergate break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington. AFP

The Watergate buildings feature office suites, a hotel and single-family residences. Getty Images / AFP

Woodward was a cub reporter when he and veteran 'Washington Post' reporter Carl Bernstein broke the Watergate story. AFP

A break-in by five men looking to install microphones at the Watergate and take pictures of documents to find compromising information on Nixon's opponents led to the president's downfall. AFP

Former 'Washington Post’s' executive editor Ben Bradlee and publisher Katharine Graham seen leaving the US district court in Washington. AP

Nixon met football star Pele in 1973 as rumblings of the Watergate scandal were beginning to surface. Photo: US National Archives

A wanted poster features key people involved in the Watergate scandal at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington. EPA

The exhibition presents illustrations from the 50th anniversary of the Watergate scandal. EPA

A photograph of Mark Felt and 'Time' magazine cover artwork called 'Nixon's Palace Guard' are part of the display. EPA

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Carl Bernstein eulogises his former boss and 'Washington Post' executive editor Ben Bradlee at the National Cathedral in Washington. Getty Images / AFP

A caricature which appeared on the cover of 'Time' magazine in April 1973. EPA

The luxurious Watergate complex in Washington where the Democratic National Committee had its offices in 1973. AP

The exterior of the modern Watergate Hotel in Washington. Photo: Ron Blunt

The location of the clandestine meetings between Woodward and Mark Felt in 1972 and 1973 were kept secret until Felt came forward and revealed himself to be Deep Throat in 2005. Getty Images / AFP

A historical marker stands outside the parking garage underneath the Oakhill Office Building in Rosslyn, Virginia. Getty Images / AFP

Ben Bradlee, actor Dustin Hoffman and Harry Rosenfeld talk at the premiere of 'All the President's Men' at the Kennedy Centre in Washington. The Washington Post / AP

Bloomberg contributed to this report