A federal judge has dismissed President Donald Trump’s civil suit against journalist Bob Woodward over his audiobook.
The president sued Woodward, publisher Simon and Schuster, and its former owner Paramount Global in January 2023, claiming he was a joint author and had a copyright interest in the interviews that were used for Woodward’s 2022 audiobook The Trump Tapes.
Judge Paul G. Gardephe granted Woodward’s motion to dismiss the president’s lawsuit on Friday.
Trump’s second amended complaint, filed in April 2023, “does not plausibly allege that the parties ‘fully intended to be co-authors’ of a joint work,” the judge wrote.
The president had argued his interviews with Woodward “were not provided in the scope of President Trump’s employment by the federal government” but were “prepared at President Trump’s own volition and outside of his official duties.”
All the interviews were conducted when Trump was in office, the defendants countered, noting Trump sat for 19 interviews between December 2019 and August 2020.
They added the Copyright Act “bars government officials like President Trump from asserting any copyright in an interview conducted as part of their official duties,” meaning he fails to state an authorship claim.
“No president before Donald Trump ever claimed to own a copyright in presidential interviews or demanded royalties for their republication,” the defendants claimed. They pointed out that Woodward has written books about 10 presidents.
Woodward was the “sole architect and true author,” the journalist’s lawyers wrote in a filing.
Woodward, a longtime investigative journalist, who uncovered the Watergate scandal at The Washington Post, had conducted several interviews and audio recordings with Trump during the final year of his first term.
Trump’s team argued that when he agreed to the interviews, “he was agreeing to be recorded for the sole purpose of Woodward being able to write a single book.” The president was referring to the book Rage, which was published in September 2020.
In addition to the audio book, Woodward has penned a trilogy of the Trump presidency with his books Rage, Fear and Peril. About 20 percent of Rage stemmed from interviews with the president, Woodward’s legal team argued.
The judge left the door slightly ajar for Trump, giving him a chance to amend his complaint and refile it by August 18.
“While it appears unlikely that Plaintiff can adequately plead a plausible copyright interest in The Trump Tapes or any non-preempted state law claim, this Court cannot find at this stage that any amendment would be futile. Accordingly, leave to move to amend is granted,” Gardephe wrote.
Trump was seeking nearly $50 million.
A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team told Reuters in a statement: “In another biased action by a New York Court, this wrongful decision was issued without even affording President Trump the basic due process of a hearing. We will continue to ensure that those who commit wrongdoing against President Trump and all Americans are held accountable.”
The president’s legal defeat comes as he launches a fresh lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal. The paper published a story on Thursday alleging Trump sent disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein a bawdy birthday card for his 50th birthday.
Trump vehemently denied the claims. “This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story,” he told the outlet. “I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women.”
He is suing The WSJ and its owners for defamation and is seeking $10 billion.
