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President Trump is taking a stand against the “Fake News Media” in a new knockout lawsuit filed against author Bob Woodward, whom the president has accused of “wrongfully profiting” from his voice.
Trump announced in an official statement: “I am continuing my fight against the corrupt, dishonest, and deranged Fake News Media by filing this lawsuit against a man whose image is far different from the fact, Bob Woodward, his publisher Simon & Schuster, and their parent company, Paramount Global, for misappropriating, manipulating, and wrongfully profiting from my Voice.”
The crux of the lawsuit is centered on interviews that Woodward conducted with President Trump for one of his books, “Rage,” which was published on Sept. 14, 2021.
The lawsuit alleges: “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. Specifically, SSI and Woodward conspired to, and did, collate and cobble together more than eight hours of ‘raw’ interviews with President Trump.”
The lawsuit also alleges that the defendants released those recordings as an audiobook “without President Trump’s permission” in October 2022 in an audiobook called “The Trump Tapes: Bob Woodward’s Twenty Interviews with President Donald Trump.”
Trump commented on the situation in his statement, noting, “Woodward and his corporate bosses not only tried to profiteer from doctoring tapes, which were only to be used for the ‘written word,’ namely help in accuracy for his book. This was an open and blatant attempt to make me look as bad as possible. They have instead been exposed for the liars and forgers that they are..”
The lawsuit additionally alleges that Woodward deviated from industry standard practices and “did not obtain the requisite releases, misappropriated President Trump’s copyright interests, manipulated the recordings to benefit Woodward’s desired narrative while peddling the story that the recordings are ‘raw,’ and deprived President Trump of the opportunity to publish or not to publish his words, read in his voice.”
President Trump pointed out in his statement that while Woodward and SSI may have meant to attempt to make him look as “bad” as possible, “they have instead been exposed for the liars and forgers that they are. I will always champion TRUTH and battle against the evil forces of disinformation and Fake News!”