Former president Donald Trump reportedly has filed a lawsuit against the Pulitzer Prize Board. In the suit, the 45th president claims the committee defamed him by honoring the New York Times and Washington Post for their reporting on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and by refusing to retract those awards.
Trump’s lawsuit was viewed by Fox News, according to Mediaite. It alleges “key assertions and premises of the Russia Collusion Hoax” crucial to both papers’ 2018 reporting were debunked by the The Mueller Report and congressional investigations.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller told Congress in July 2019 his nearly two-year investigation did not explore allegations of collusion, and there was not evidence “sufficient to charge any member of the campaign with taking part in a criminal conspiracy.”
He also stated Trump was not “exculpated for the acts that he allegedly committed,” while making clear his team did not have the power to indict Trump.
No charges were filed against Trump, who was impeached over separate instances in 2019 and 2021.
The Pulitzer Prize Board addressed Trump’s grievance in July by saying two independent reviews concluded “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.”
Fox News said Trump’s case against the award committee seeks unspecified monetary damages to be “proven at trial.”
