Trump calls on Pulitzer Prize Board to rescind awards to NYT and WaPo.
Former President Donald Trump is asking the Pulitzer Prize Board to rescind the 2018 awards given to the staff of the New York Times and the Washington Post for his reports that fueled the deception that the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election.
In a letter dated September 30, but published Tuesday afternoon, Trump wrote to the interim Pulitzer Prize administration Bud Kliment:
I call on the Pulitzer Prize Board to immediately terminate the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting awarded to the staff of the New York Times and the Washington Post, which was based on false reports of a non-existent link between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign. As has been widely publicized, the coverage was nothing more than a politically motivated charade that attempted to weave a false narrative that my campaign allegedly colluded with Russia despite a complete lack of evidence to support this allegation.
Trump added: “For two years, these institutions feverishly pushed one story about Russia after another and, despite lacking credible evidence, they tried to persuade the public that my campaign had colluded with the Russian government.”
He called on the media to voluntarily hand over their awards, but if not, he hoped the board would act.
“For more than a century, the Pulitzer Prize has been widely recognized as a significant achievement in the field of journalism. … When it becomes clear that a Pulitzer Prize-winning work was based on poor quality, dubious, and manifestly false reports, as is the case here, the Pulitzer Prize Board should react accordingly, ”he wrote.
Trump’s letter was attached to another letter from an attorney representing him, dated November 15. His attorney’s letter similarly demanded that the board strip both papers of their awards or face “immediate legal action.” The attorney, Alina Habba, wrote:
Based on the foregoing, the Pulitzer Prize Board is required to take immediate action to strip the New York Times and the Washington Post of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. Failure to do so by the Pulitzer Prize Board will result in a immediate legal action against you. Please be guided accordingly.
Habba noted that the sources of the media reports “are now facing criminal charges for their unlawful conduct.”
Special Counsel John Durham recently charged a third individual who provided false statements to the FBI to bolster the collusion allegations, Igor Danchenko.
Danchenko revealed his indictment, lied to the FBI about false information he provided for a dossier that provided the basis for a surveillance order against the Trump campaign and provided a roadmap for the FBI investigation into the campaign and the administration of Trump.
The indictment revealed that Danchenko provided information from a fabricated source and from a public relations executive who was Bill and Hillary Clinton’s longtime associate, Charles Dolan Jr.
The revelations prompted the Washington Post to withdraw and edit parts of a dozen articles last week, with its executive editor writing that, “The Mail I could no longer bear the precision of those elements of the story. ”
Habba wrote:
Despite these disclosures, the Pulitzer Prize Board has not taken any action to correct, retract, or repudiate the false reports contained in the articles in question. Even one of the award recipients, The Washington Post, has acknowledged the baseless nature of its reporting in regards to these events. Specifically, on November 12, 2021, The Post retracted statements in various articles related to the Steele Dossier and the alleged Russia-Trump connection and its executive editor proclaimed that “The Post could no longer sustain the accuracy of those elements of the history.
The lawyer pointed out that the Mail He has also asked CNN to retract his reports as well, adding that failure to do so is the reason why “many people distrust CNN.”
Meanwhile, Habba wrote, the Pulitzer Prize website still maintains that articles on the subject were “Deep in origin” and still refers to “Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and its connections to the Trump campaign, the president-elect’s transition team and his eventual administration.”
“By failing to remove these statements, revoke the award, or even publicly comment on the illegitimate nature of the works, the Pulitzer Prize Board is actively advancing the false narrative it contains and promoting defamatory statements against our client,” he wrote.
He advised the Pulitzer Prize Board that it has a legal obligation to retain and not destroy any relevant documents or information.