For all of Donald Trump’s claims about “transparency,” there are a great many materials related to the president’s record that he prefers to keep hidden. The targets of one of his lawsuits wants to see some of those materials anyway in response to a fight he picked. Bloomberg Law reported:
If Donald Trump wants to sue the Pulitzer Prize Board for giving awards to journalism critical of his ties to Russia, he will have to cough up business records to prove he was harmed.
The board filed demands for documents and information Thursday in Florida state court that would force Trump to back up his defamation allegations.
“Just like any other plaintiff, the President must articulate and prove his claims with evidence,” a board spokesperson said in a statement. “The Pulitzer Board will not be cowed by the President’s attempt to intimidate journalists or undermine the First Amendment.”
It’s been a long while since we last talked about this one, so let’s take a minute to review.
Seven years ago, The New York Times and The Washington Post received Pulitzers for their respective coverage of Trump’s Russia scandal, and by any fair standard, the honors were well deserved. The president, naturally, didn’t quite see it that way.
In fact, the more he convinced himself the Russia scandal wasn’t real (despite the fact that it was, and is, entirely legitimate), the more he appeared preoccupied with the awards. The Republican even pressed the board to reverse course and strip the newspapers of the honors, since, as far as Trump was concerned, the awards were in recognition of reporting on a scandal that had been discredited.
The Pulitzer board could’ve ignored him, but in an exceedingly generous move, it took Trump’s complaints seriously and launched independent reviews of the newspapers’ reporting. Predictably, they found that the Times and the Post were right, the Russia scandal was real, the reporting deserved to be honored and none of the reporting had been “discredited by facts that emerged subsequent to the conferral of the prizes.”
Unsatisfied with the board’s annoying commitment to facts he doesn’t like, Trump, three years ago this week, filed a defamation lawsuit against the Pulitzer Prize Board for honoring newspaper articles he disapproved of.
The case has lingered in the background, but it’s now reached the discovery phase, which is notable in large part because of the nature of the board’s records request.
As part of the legal process, the board’s attorneys have said they’re entitled to Trump’s tax returns dating back to 2015 and medical records, including any possible psychological records. “To the extent You seek damages for any physical ailment or mental or emotional injury arising from Counts I-IV of Your Complaint, all Documents (whether held by You or by third parties under Your control or who could produce them at your direction) concerning Your medical and/or psychological health from January 1, 2015, to present, including any prescription medications you have been prescribed or have taken,” the board wrote in its latest legal filing. “For the avoidance of doubt, this includes all Documents Concerning Your annual physical examination. To the extent you do not seek such damages in this action, please confirm so in writing.” I have a hunch the request will not be well received by the plaintiff. Watch this space. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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