A federal judge has dismissed President Donald Trump’s $50 million lawsuit against Bob Woodward, the legendary Washington Post journalist who helped expose the Watergate scandal.
Trump sued Woodward and publishing giant Simon & Schuster in January 2023, claiming the release of The Trump Tapes — an audiobook featuring 20 on-the-record interviews between Trump and Woodward from 2016 to 2020 — violated his copyright. Trump argued the recordings were only intended for Woodward’s 2020 book Rage, not for public audio release.
But U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe disagreed.
In a ruling issued Friday, Gardephe — a George W. Bush appointee — found that Trump failed to prove he had any copyright interest in the interviews or that he was a co-author of the material. Gardephe said the interviews were conducted “on the record,” and therefore, Woodward had the right to publish them…
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