Pulitzer Board seeks order barring release of materials in Trump suit

The Pulitzer Prize Board has sought a protective order that would keep confidential discovery materials related to President-elect Donald Trump's libel suit against the panel.

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

In early January, the Board submitted a filing in 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.

They further alleged that Trump sought to "misuse the discovery process in this case to embarrass Defendants and the media more broadly."