Former President Donald Trump is going on the offensive by filing a defamation lawsuit against the Pulitzer board for comments they made after reviewing prize-winning material.
Wednesday’s (December 14) lawsuit follows Trump’s threats to the Pulitzer board that he would sue them after he accused them of defaming him through a statement they issued after conducting two independent reviews into award-winning Russian collusion stories.
The defamatory statements come as a result of Trump’s request that the board revokes the national reporting awards given to the Washington Post and New York Times in 2018.
When the Pultizer board refused Trump’s request, they released a statement asserting that the text and headlines of the award-winning articles had not been “discredited by facts that emerged subsequent to the conferral of the prizes.”
The former President claims the statement the Pulitzer board released explaining their refusal contained multiple untruths.
In the lawsuit, Trump’s team claims the Pulitzer board could not have come to its conclusion following a” thorough and independent review,” expressing that despite having this knowledge, the board published its statement anyway.
The former President is seeking an undisclosed amount in damages.
Trump’s use of the courts to settle scores isn’t new. It’s a tactic the former President used long before his term in the Oval Office.
The 20 award-winning articles chronicle Russia’s attempts to interfere in the 2016 Presidential election and an investigation into possible collusion between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.
For years, Trump has claimed the investigation, articles, and subsequent awards amounted to a witch hunt, in which the media attempted to discredit his 2016 Presidential win by introducing the prospect of Russian interference.
