The requests place the U.S. President in a legally exposed position, as independent media figures close ranks against him in a high-stakes court fight.

Members of the Pulitzer Prize Board have asked a Florida court to require President Donald Trump to turn over extensive personal and financial records as part of his defamation lawsuit against them.

In court filings submitted Thursday in Okeechobee County, lawyers for 20 Pulitzer Board members issued broad discovery requests tied to Trump’s 2022 lawsuit challenging the Board’s refusal to rescind the 2018 Pulitzer Prizes awarded to The New York Times and The Washington Post for reporting on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

The requests give Trump 30 days to respond and seek documents related to his demands that the prizes be withdrawn, his threats to sue, and his claim that the Board’s statement defending the awards harmed him politically. The defendants also asked for records connected to Trump’s other defamation lawsuits, including cases involving E. Jean Carroll, CNN, ABC, CBS, and an ongoing suit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch.

More to read:
Trump is accused of insider trading and market manipulation amid tariff reversal controversy

Most notably, the filing demands all of Trump’s tax returns from 2015 to the present, detailed records of his income, assets, and liabilities, as well as medical and psychological records if he is seeking damages for physical, mental, or emotional harm.

Trump sued after the Pulitzer Prize Board issued a 2022 statement rejecting his demand to revoke the 2018 awards. Trump argued the Board was promoting what he called the “Russia Collusion Hoax.” The Board said it had commissioned two independent reviews and found that none of the award-winning reporting had been discredited.

More to read:
Trump family screws U.S. customers over promised “Made in the USA” T1 phone

“The separate 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,” the Board said, concluding: “The 2018 Pulitzer Prizes in National Reporting stand.”

The case has moved slowly through Florida courts. Earlier this year, Judge Robert Pegg rejected the Board’s attempt to shield its internal deliberations from discovery, ruling that they were not privileged. He also declined to dismiss the case, finding that the Board’s statement could be treated as “actionable mixed opinion” because it did not disclose all underlying facts to readers.

After appeals, the lawsuit returned to Pegg’s court in September, where discovery is now moving forward.

You may support our small reporting project via BuyMeCoffee. Any amount is welcome.