The Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to take up an attempt by Pulitzer Prize board members to halt a defamation lawsuit that President Donald Trump filed after the board refused to rescind a 2018 award to The New York Times and The Washington Post.
The Supreme Court’s decision effectively leaves in place a May 28 decision by the state’s 4th District Court of Appeal that denied a request for a stay of the lawsuit. As is common, the Supreme Court did not explain its decision. The dispute stemmed from a lawsuit that Trump filed in 2022 in Okeechobee County contending 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 for reporting about alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election. The Pulitzer board commissioned two independent reviews of the Times and Post stories and declined to rescind the award decision, according to court documents.
The board statement 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.”
A panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal in February refused to dismiss the lawsuit against Pulitzer board members and other people associated with the board who live outside of Florida. The board members then sought a stay of the lawsuit while Trump is the sitting president. But in the May 28 decision, the South Florida appeals court rejected the request, pointing to the fact that Trump had not sought to put the case on hold.
–News Service of Florida
Deborah Coffey says
We’ve got a 3 year old in the White House. How much of our money is he spending on all these ridiculous lawsuits because his feelings are hurt?
Laurel says
“The dispute stemmed from a lawsuit that Trump filed in 2022 in Okeechobee County contending he was defamed by a statement posted online by the Pulitzer board.”
OMG! He can even get along with the Pulitzer Prize Board, from whom he wants the prize! Okay, is this guy nuts or what?
Laurel says
“…can’t even get along…”
Yeah, I totally think he’s nuts.
Skibum says
Aw, widdle donnie is just sitting there whining and soiling his diaper, poor baby. Wait for it… soon he will be grabbing for another bottle of ketchup to splatter on something, maybe on some of his faux gold, gaudy kitsch he adorned all the walls in our WH with to make him feel like one of those middle eastern royals he fauns over. He needs to get over it… he ain’t getting a Pulitzer, he ain’t getting a Nobel either! What a dumbass whiny POS.