A Florida circuit court judge has denied the Pulitzer Prize Board’s motion to delay President Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against them on presidential immunity grounds, opening the door for the discovery of internal deliberations. 

Trump sued the board in 2022 for defamation after it refused to retract prizes awarded in 2018 to The New York Times and The Washington Post staffs for their coverage of the Trump-Russia collusion narratives. The board previously conducted a review of the prizes and stood by the awards. Neither news outlet is a defendant in the suit. 

The Pulitzer board defendants have tried to delay the case and keep secret internal deliberations about the awards in the discovery process. In January, the board invoked Trump’s presidential immunity arguments in other cases to suggest that it would raise “constitutional concerns” for the president to be subject to legal proceedings in a state court. 

The judge denied this motion, ruling that the president could decide on his own whether the proceedings interfere with his obligations and told the board that, if Trump failed to comply with the court rules, they could pursue usual remedies. 

“Should the duties of the president interfere with his ability to perform his obligations in this action, he is certainly entitled to seek appropriate relief,” the judge wrote. “Should he not do so, yet not comply with the rules of this court, defendants may apply for the appropriate sanctions as they would against any other plaintiff.” 

You can read the judge’s ruling below: 

Earlier, the board had submitted a filing in Florida's Okeechobee County, asking for a protective order to keep discovery materials confidential and addressed possible complaints from the Trump team. The board called its desired order a "garden variety" protection and insisted that it sought to keep the deliberations about the awards private in accordance with a long tradition.

The board alleges that Trump is seeking to "misuse the discovery process in this case to embarrass Defendants and the media more broadly,” Just the News previously reported.