Trump accused of 'seeking to profit from public service' in scathing filing from Bob Woodward's lawyers

Attorneys representing longtime Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward this week issued a scathing legal filing accusing Donald Trump of trying to shamelessly profit off his presidency by suing their client for transcripts of interviews conducted while he was in the Oval Office.

Law and Crime News reports that Woodward's attorneys are arguing that Trump's attempt to sue Woodward over publishing the transcripts is an unprecedented claim of executive branch authority to attempt to control a reporter's coverage of a president.

"No President before Donald Trump has ever claimed to own a copyright in presidential interviews or demanded royalties for their republication," Woodward attorney Elizabeth A. McNamara writes.

McNamara goes on to tie Trump's lawsuit to allegations that he has repeatedly tried to personally profit from the presidency, most infamously when he tried to have the United States government host a G7 meeting at his own personal golf resort.

IN OTHER NEWS: Pregnant Texas woman threatened with arrest if she left hospital to seek abortion: lawsuit

"As if on a mission to prove this ‘everything is mine’ thesis, Donald Trump, ‘in his individual capacity,’ asserts that he owns Woodward’s entire Work because it includes words spoken by ‘President Trump, 45th President of the United States of America,'” the filing states. “And President Trump seeks to profit from his public service by demanding Defendants pay him nearly $50 million.”

The arguments Trump makes in regard to owning Woodward's interview transcripts are similar to those he has made regarding the top-secret government documents he brought with him to Mar-a-Lago, as he has said he had the absolute right as president to do what he wanted with them even though they are government property.