Florida Court Rules That Trump Can Pursue Lawsuit Against Pulitzer Board

"TALLAHASSEE - A Florida appeals court Wednesday cleared the way for President Donald Trump to pursue a defamation lawsuit against Pulitzer Prize board members in a dispute rooted in the organization awarding a prize to The New York Times and The Washington Post for reporting about alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.

A three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal rejected arguments that the lawsuit should be dismissed against Pulitzer board members and other people associated with the board who live outside of Florida.

The lawsuit, which Trump filed in 2022 in Okeechobee County, contends that he was defamed by a statement posted online by the Pulitzer board. That statement came after Trump requested that the board rescind the joint 2018 award to the two newspapers. The board commissioned two independent reviews of the Times and Post stories and declined to rescind the award decision. The board statement, which was later posted online, said in part that the “reviews converged in their conclusions: that no passages or headlines, contentions or assertions in any of the winning submissions were discredited by facts that emerged subsequent to the conferral of the prizes.”"

Jim Saunders reports for News Service of Florida February 12, 2025.

 

Source: News Service of Florida, 02/14/2025