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.”
The Pulitzer board members argued the lawsuit should be dismissed, in part, because 19 of the defendants were not Florida residents. They argued that as a result, Florida courts did not have legal “jurisdiction” over those defendants. The only other defendant was Neil Brown, president of the St. Petersburg-based Poynter Institute.
Circuit Judge Robert Pegg rejected the jurisdiction argument involving the out-of-state residents, leading the defendants to appeal. But the appeals-court panel Wednesday upheld Pegg’s decision.
“Trump’s operative pleading sufficiently pled that the defendants engaged in a conspiracy to defame him,” said Wednesday’s main opinion, written by Judge Jeffre Kuntz and joined by Judges Burton Conner and Ed Artau. “Further, the defendants issued the website public statement in response to the requests of a Florida resident — Trump. They did so in a meeting attended remotely by a Florida resident (Brown) who also conducted an editing review of the proposed website statement while in Florida.”
The opinion does not resolve the underlying allegations in the lawsuit.
But Artau issued a concurring opinion that referred to “now-debunked allegations that he (Trump) colluded with the Russians to win the 2016 presidential election.” Artau wrote that Trump “has met his burden of establishing jurisdiction to proceed with his asserted claims that the non-resident defendants acted with actual malice or reckless disregard for the truth by knowingly conspiring with the Florida resident defendant to defame the president by publishing the statement.”
“Therefore, the trial court correctly denied the non-resident defendants’ motion to dismiss the President’s claims over the asserted publication of defamatory ‘FAKE NEWS.’” Artau wrote.
In a brief filed in August, attorneys for the Pulitzer board members disputed that the statement published by the board was defamatory.
“The board statement asserts that the award-winning articles ‘on Russian interference in the U.S. election and its connections to the Trump campaign’ do not contain any ‘passages or headlines, contentions or assertions’ that have been ‘discredited by facts that emerged subsequent to the conferral of the prizes.’ That statement is not defamatory because it does not reasonably convey the implication that Trump colluded with Russia, nor does it signal that the board affirmatively endorsed that implication,” the brief said. “Moreover, even if the board statement conveyed that implication, it discloses all the facts — set out in the articles themselves — on which that conclusion would be based, rendering the board statement a nonactionable ‘pure opinion.’ The board statement thus does not amount to a ‘tortious act’ and the non-resident defendants are not subject to personal jurisdiction in Florida.”
Also, the attorneys argued that there “is no dispute that the members who drafted the board statement did so outside of Florida, the members who approved the board statement did so outside of Florida, the administrator who edited the board statement did so outside of Florida, and the staff member who published the board statement online did so outside of Florida. It is likewise beyond dispute that the board did not direct the board statement into Florida. Precedent is clear that, in these circumstances, the non-resident defendants are not subject to personal jurisdiction in Florida as a matter of due process.”
The Pulitzer board issued a statement after Wednesday’s ruling that vowed to continue fighting the lawsuit.
“This lawsuit is about intimidation of the press and those who support it — and we will not be intimidated,” the statement said. “The Pulitzer Board will continue to recognize the accomplishments of journalists, writers, artists and composers at the highest level. We look forward to continuing our defense of journalism.”
Kuntz’s opinion referred to 19 members of the Pulitzer board. But the board’s brief said the 19 out-of-state defendants included board members, former board members and administrators.
–Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida
Samuel says
A endless pit of corruption.
Joseph Barand says
Trump is a fucking idiot and is not worth the oxygen he consumes. If there was ever a criminal who deserves prision, it’s him!
Ed Danko, Former Vice-Mayor PC says
We all know “Russia, Russia, Russia” was total “BS,BS,BS” created by the Clinton campaign! The left-wing liberal media refused to see it, just like they turned a blind eye to the Hunter Biden laptop. They are just part of the DNC propaganda machine and most of us know it.
Pogo says
@Goodnight
…suckers
Laurel says
Exactly.
Laurel says
Ed Danko, etc., etc.: Do you have a single thought of your own? I only hear Fox Entertainment talking points from you, every time. Same, old thing. Over and over. Nothing new.
You want to go after Hunter Biden’s laptop? Do it! Please! But also, go after Jared Kushner’s and Ivonka Trump’s gift of $2,000,000,000 from the Saudis at the same time. Now, I’m interested. Not until then.
Jahovah-ville reject says
It’s obvious now that Trump has a “great” debt to pay to Putin… and a partial payment is a plum to be picked at the dining table of international diplomacy… the plum being the Ukraine. Unfortunately Putin, being the he-man he is, might have developed quite an appetite and want more than just a plum.
To which Trump will respond?
Perhaps,
bon appetite!
Just an opinion.
Sherry says
@ ed. . . “YOU” most certainly DO NOT speak for “most of us”. . . that is unless you meant most of the Maga Cult Members!
Your title, for which you must be very proud, suits you very well, especially the word “vice”.
It will be very interesting to see how that law suit actually turns out.
FROGGY says
This is part and parcel of DJT’s and his MAGA followers incessant attempts to gaslight America, rewrite History and relitigate all of his past grievances that he was unfairly persecuted/prosecuted by the DOJ, the January 6 committee investigation regarding the attempted insurrection/coup and attack that he orchestrated and led. We all witnessed with our own eyes the disgraceful and traitorous attack on the nation’s Capitol. No amount of law fare and gaslighting will ever change that. The Muller report was heavily redacted but it clearly showed that Russia did attempt to meddle in our election process despite the attempts by Fox News and other right wing News outlets to downplay and discredit it. I can only hope and pray that his favorite ploy to use the legal system to wear down his opponents especially the ones that dare to criticize his many corrupt actions backfires on him and that a day of reckoning comes to him and the American people will see him for what he truly is a grifter and a conman who cares nothing about our country and is only concerned about enriching himself and his rich Oligarchs who brought him to power.
Kim says
This is merely jurisdictional bs. Florida civil court judges have each party provide their own wish for a ruling, and the judge signs one. Judge Kurtz seems to regurgitate Trump’s own word “colluded,” which would mean Trump defamed himself, LOL. I expect the Pulitzer Board to ultimately prevail, because truth is the ultimate defense. The fact he didn’t sue WaPo and NYT for any of the voluminous reporting the Pulitzer Board awarded is de facto admission that the board’s description of the content was true, at least by intent.
I don’t think anyone can defame the convicted election-fraud felon more than he does to himself.
Trump did solicit Russia, on live TV. I heard him: “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let’s see if that happens. … By the way, they hacked — they probably have her 33,000 emails. I hope they do. They probably have her 33,000 emails that she lost and deleted because you’d see some beauties there. So let’s see.”
I’ve always wondered why he claimed to have first-hand knowledge of “hacked” alleged emails, which would be a crime, to know “some beauties in there.” But, of course, he’s a big fat liar. It’s the one reliable thing about him. All just IMO, of course.
T says
Ed is maga cult drinks kool-aid type no reason to think or listen hopeless