Trump’s Suit Against Pulitzer Board Faces a Hurdle: His Previous Arguments

Litigation has long been one of President Trump’s favorite weapons against media outlets whose coverage he objects to. But in at least one case, he is encountering an unforeseen obstacle: his previous arguments in court.

On Monday, the board that awards the Pulitzer Prizes — which Mr. Trump sued in Florida in 2022 for defamation — said that the case should be put on hold because, as Mr. Trump has argued in two other cases, a state court should not be permitted to exert control over a sitting president.

“Defendants agree,” wrote the law firm representing the board, Ballard Spahr. “To avoid such constitutional conflicts, the court should stay this case until plaintiff’s term in office has concluded.”

Mr. Trump’s lawsuit accuses the Pulitzer board of defaming him, in essence, by continuing to honor The New York Times and The Washington Post for their coverage of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. A state judge in Florida last year cleared the case to proceed toward trial.

The Pulitzer board’s filing on Monday leaned heavily on statements the president’s legal team had made in other cases. One involved a suit filed in 2017 by Summer Zervos, a former contestant on “The Apprentice” reality show, who accused the president of unwanted sexual advances. Mr. Trump’s team argued that her suit should be thrown out or delayed because dealing with it — including by producing records during discovery or being forced to appear in court — would “disrupt and impair” Mr. Trump’s ability to do his job. (The suit was settled in 2021, after he was out of office.)

Mr. Trump’s lawyers repeated that argument last week in a different case in Delaware, in which he and his social media company are defendants.