An unredacted copy of Robert Mueller’s report into Russian election interference. Internal communications between the Donald Trump White House and Russians. Details of Trump’s abandoned Moscow tower deal.
Those and other confidential records at the heart of Trump’s ties to one of America’s biggest international adversaries were demanded Friday morning by the Pulitzer Prize Board. That filing, submitted in Florida state court, could test the powers of the chief executive over disclosure when a sitting president uses the courts to battle the media.
The crux of Trump’s case is a claim that journalism’s premier award committee defamed him when it stood by awards given to reporting on connections between Trump and Russia in the 2016 presidential campaign. To win he must prove the underlying reporting was false to keep his lawsuit alive, while also controlling federal offices holding the records, and wielding the singular authority to declassify the documents.
“Just like any other plaintiff, the President must articulate and prove his claims with evidence,” a spokesperson for the Pulitzer Board said in a statement.
After declaring those Russia-connection reports “FAKE NEWS,” a “phony Witch Hunt,” and “a big hoax” he’s now presented with a catch-22: either disclose things classified as national secrets or drop his claim, said Seth Stern, Director of Advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation. Falsity of the statement involved is the first element of defamation.
“That raises questions about Donald Trump’s judgment and priorities,” said Stern, a First Amendment litigator before joining the press advocacy and training organization, who called the lawsuit frivolous. “He’s the president of the United States. He should be putting the national interest above his personal efforts to recover monetary damages in litigation when he’s already a billionaire.”
But that’s not the route Trump chose, even when the Pulitzer Board pushed for it.
Once Trump won election, the board urged a trial, appellate, and Supreme Court in Florida to stay the case out of concerns that Trump could create a constitutional crisis by refusing to obey court rules and orders when it came time for discovery into the factual issues of the case. Trump’s legal team pushed on, leading a Florida appeals judge to reason, “When the President is a willing participant, courts do not risk improperly interfering with the essential functioning of government.”
Redacted Reports, White House Communications
The names and items demanded by the Pulitzer Board were in countless headlines.
The request includes high-profile documents, from the March 2019 report issued by Special Counsel Mueller examining Trump’s role in Russian election interference tactics to joint assessments on those Russian activities to US House and Senate reports on this issue as well as assessments by US spy agencies. None of these have been released in complete, unredacted forms.
The board is also seeking communications between Trump’s inner circle and Russia. The board demands letters, email, text messages, and social media direct messages of a Who’s Who of Trump campaign and administration staff including Stephen Miller, Michael Flynn, Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, and Jeff Sessions.
Further the board is demanding records regarding Trump’s investigations and firing decisions, documents related to the firing of FBI Director James Comey, and any communications around the potential firing of Mueller. A demand for records into the reason the Trump administration switched an investigation into the Russian interference investigation from US Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania David Metcalf to Southern District of Florida US Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones.
Document demands like these are novel. However, a sitting president serially filing defamation lawsuits against the media in response to news reporting—demands that have thus far reached roughly $65 billion over reporting into elections he’s mostly won—has also never happened before, Stern said.
“This is all unprecedented.”
The case is Trump v. Members of the Pulitzer Prize Bd., Fla. Cir. Ct., No. 22-CA-000246, discovery request filed 1/30/26.
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