Pulitzer Board Seeks Full, Unredacted Mueller Report in Discovery Amid Trump Defamation Suit

The Pulitzer Prize Board has asked a Florida court to compel production of a complete, unredacted copy of the Mueller Report as part of discovery in its defense against President Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit. The suit challenges the board’s decision not to rescind the 2018 Pulitzer Prizes awarded jointly to The Washington Post and The New York Times for their reporting on Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Those newspapers shared the 2018 National Reporting prize for what the Pulitzer citation called “deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage” of Russian election interference.

The board’s new discovery request, filed in Florida, directly addresses Mr. Trump’s assertion that the board’s public defense of the 2018 awards damaged his reputation. Mr. Trump has repeatedly dismissed the reporting by The Times and The Post as a “Russia Collusion Hoax.”

Central to the litigation is a statement the Pulitzer Board issued after Mr. Trump demanded the prizes be withdrawn. After independent reviews, the board said it found no evidence that subsequent facts discredited the winning submissions and concluded that the awards “stand.”

“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 2018 Pulitzer Prizes in National Reporting stand.”

Mr. Trump contends that the board’s endorsement wrongly implied “criminal, wrongful, and un-American conduct,” harming his reputation and stature — a claim he supports by noting the Pulitzer’s prominence in American journalism.

To test those claims, the board’s discovery demands ask the court to order production of the full Mueller report, communications with former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team, and records related to key episodes investigators examined, including contacts with Russia-linked figures. The board argues these materials are relevant to whether its statement reasonably harmed Mr. Trump’s reputation.

Robert Mueller’s report did not allege a criminal conspiracy by the Trump campaign; it stated that “the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome,” while also noting the investigation did not establish that campaign members conspired or coordinated with the Russian government.

The dispute — now unfolding in a Florida court — centers on whether the Pulitzer Board’s public defense of its awards can be the basis for a defamation claim and whether the underlying investigative record supports or undermines Mr. Trump’s allegations of reputational harm.

Source: Court filings and the Pulitzer Prize Board statement (reporting compiled from public records).