President Donald Trump won a significant victory earlier this week in his lawsuit against the members of the Pulitzer Prize Board. The lawsuit, filed in 2022, surrounds the 2018 National Reporting prizes awarded to The New York Times and The Washington Post for coverage of the now-debunked allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
The lawsuit states that a “demonstrably false connection was and remains the stated basis” for the coverage that received the prestigious award. Trump’s recent win comes after Judge Robert L. Pegg of the 19th Judicial Circuit Court in Okeechobee County, Florida, struck down a motion from the board members.
The Pulitzer Prize Board filed a motion last week for Protective Order Governing Discovery in hopes of “shielding” their internal communications involving the decision to award both The Times and The Post Pulitzer Prizes for their Russiagate reporting during Trump’s first term in the White House.
“The rule requires ‘an affirmative showing of annoyance, embarrassment, oppression, or undue burden or expense’ from such party or person… Defendants have failed to meet this requirement, as there is no factual support in the record demonstrating that any defendant, much less each defendant, would be subject to annoyance, embarrassment, oppression, or undue burden or expense if a protective order is not entered,” Pegg wrote in his filing.
“President Trump is committed to holding those who traffic in deception and fake news to account,” Trump attorney Quincy Bird told Fox News Digital. “The defendants, hiding behind the once-prestigious Pulitzer Prizes, attempted to resurrect a left-wing hoax by giving, as well as continuing to stand by and republishing, its disgraced award to the organizations that drove the infamous ‘Russia Russia Russia’ hoax.”
“This was a defamatory scam designed to damage President Trump’s image and presidential campaign. After today’s win in court, this case will now proceed to a very thorough discovery process and President Trump
