Judge hands Trump victory in Pulitzer Prize Board lawsuit
President Donald Trump seems to have quite the knack for winning in court, at least most of the time. He and his lawyers recently notched another victory in the courtroom.
According to JustTheNews, thanks to a Florida Circuit Court judge, the Pulitzer Prize Board’s motion to delay President Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against them has been denied.
The motion to delay was dismissed on presidential immunity grounds, according to court reports.
The ruling opened the door for discovery on internal deliberations, the outlet added.
What's going on?
In 2022, President Donald Trump filed suit against the board for refusing to retract prizes awarded to staffers at The New York Times and The Washington Post for their incessant coverage of the Trump-Russia collusion narratives.
Notably, the Pulitzer Prize Board had since conducted internal reviews of the awards and decided it would stand by them. Neither of the outlets mentioned above have been named as defendants in the lawsuit.
JustTheNews noted:
The Pulitzer board defendants have tried to delay the case and keep secret internal deliberations about the awards in the discovery process. In January, the board invoked Trump’s presidential immunity arguments in other cases to suggest that it would raise “constitutional concerns” for the president to be subject to legal proceedings in a state court.
The motion was denied, with the "judge ruling that the president could decide on his own whether the proceedings interfere with his obligations and told the board that, if Trump failed to comply with the court rules, they could pursue usual remedies," the outlet added.
"Should the duties of the president interfere with his ability to perform his obligations in this action, he is certainly entitled to seek appropriate relief," the judge wrote.
The judge added, "Should he not do so, yet not comply with the rules of this court, defendants may apply for the appropriate sanctions as they would against any other plaintiff."
Keeping it secret
The board had previously filed a motion in Florida's Okeechobee County asking for a protective order that would keep secret its internal deliberations on the awards.
It was argued that it was a longstanding tradition to keep such information secret.
Members of the Pulitzer Prize board argued that President Trump and his administration would "misuse the discovery process in this case to embarrass Defendants and the media more broadly."
Hopefully, that's exactly what they do!