Trump scores big legal win against Pulitzer Prize board members as lawsuit moves to discovery

President Donald Trump scored a significant legal win Monday in his lawsuit against the members of the Pulitzer Prize Board, paving the way towards the discovery phase in their courtroom battle.  

Last week, the board members filed a motion for Protective Order Governing Discovery in hopes of shielding their internal communications involving the decision to award The New York Times and The Washington Post a Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on Russiagate during Trump’s first term in office.

Judge Robert L. Pegg of the 19th Judicial Circuit Court in Okeechobee County, Florida, stuck down their motion. 

“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. 

TRUMP FILES DEFAMATION SUIT AGAINST MEMBERS OF PULITZER PRIZE BOARD FOR DEFENDING ‘DEBUNKED’ RUSSIAGATE HONORS

“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
is committed to seeing this case through to a just conclusion,” Bird added. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Pulitzer Prizes for comment.

In 2022, Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against the Pulitzer Prize Board over the 2018 National Reporting prizes given to the Times and Post for coverage of the “now-debunked theory” of alleged 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. 

PULITZER PRIZES STAND BY 2018 RUSSIAGATE HONORS TO NY TIMES, WAPO AFTER SCATHING LETTER FROM TRUMP’S TEAM

The staff of the Times and Post shared the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for “deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage in the public interest that dramatically furthered the nation’s understanding of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and its connections to the Trump campaign, the President-elect’s transition team and his eventual administration,” according to the Pulitzer website. 

“A large swath of Americans had a tremendous misunderstanding of the truth at the time the Times’ and the Post’s propagation of the Russia Collusion Hoax dominated the media,” the complaint states. “Remarkably, they were rewarded for lying to the American public.”

The complaint made a series of points indicating why it feels the Pulitzer Prize-winning stories are unworthy of the honor, including Special Counsel Robert Mueller failing to find evidence of collusion, and a DOJ Inspector General Report outlining malfeasance by federal investigators.

Trump’s team previously called for “a full and fair correction, apology, or retraction” to be issued, in addition to the 2018 prizes being rescinded, but the Pulitzer Prize Board declared the awards would stand.

TRUMP SCOLDS PULITZER PRIZE BOARD FOR STANDING BY 2018 RUSSIAGATE HONORS: ‘BIGGEST REPORTING FAILURE’

“The Pulitzer Prize Board has an established, formal process by which complaints against winning entries are carefully reviewed. In the last three years, the Pulitzer Board has received inquiries, including from former President Donald Trump, about submissions from The New York Times and The Washington Post on Russian interference in the U.S. election and its connections to the Trump campaign–submissions that jointly won the 2018 National Reporting prize,” the Pulitzer Prize Board previously wrote. .

This latest legal victory comes on the heels of ABC News’ $15 million settlement and Meta’s $25 million settlement with Trump in recent weeks. CBS News’ parent company Paramount is reportedly mulling its own settlement to end the network’s high-stakes legal battle against Trump. Trump also has filed a lawsuit against The Des Moines Register and veteran pollster Ann Selzer.

The case against the Pulitzer board members is one of the many legal fronts, criminal and civil, being coordinated by Trump’s Senior Counsel Boris Epshteyn.

Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report.