Trump DESPERATE Lawsuit BLOWS UP in His FACE

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]Donald Trump has sued more people now in a lawsuit that we're predicting is going to fail, much like almost every other lawsuit he's ever filed. This time he's suing the people who hand out journalism awards, the Pulitzer specifically. Not for getting a story wrong, but for saying that they reviewed it and they stood by it. That's the case. That's the whole thing. And it's still alive in a Florida courtroom. and we're going to talk about all the the maneuvering he did to keep it alive, but doesn't mean anything. It's still going to fail. And we're going to talk about exactly how and why. I'm Sean Krenne. I'm joined by my law partner and co-host Brian Ketch on another installment of Civil Action on the Legal AF Network, where we analyze legal issues in politics. And if you like this content, if it's your first time or if you've listened to us before or you've checked out the other great folks on Legal AF, hit that subscribe button so you can keep up to date with us and so you can support the whole network. Uh Brian, uh tell us about the uh Gulitzer lawsuit.

[00:01:00]Okay. So, this flew below below this flew below our radar and we didn't know and we've tried to cover, you know, all these ridiculous lawsuits that Trump has filed. Um, and the fact that I don't think any of them have really been successful. And this one kind of slipped out of notice to us until we were researching a guy named Jeffrey Coun who is a federal a sorry a a federal nominee to the federal bench lifetime appointment who happens to be right now a court of appeals judge in Florida who issued a favorable ruling in this case to Trump. So, shockingly, he issues a favorable ruling and he gets appointed shortly after that. He gets nominated to >> What are you insinuating, Brian? You are you insinuating that Donald Trump would engage in some type of quid proquo?

[00:01:50]Shame on you.

[00:01:51]>> Yes, I am, as a matter of fact. All right. So, let's talk about what actually happened here. So, if we go back to 2018, the Pulitzer Prize to me, and let's just pause for a second. The Pulitzer Prize is the most distinguished um award for journalism in the United States. It's given out annually to it's not just one award. It's they have different categories like the Academy Awards. They have different categories, you know, and they give out the awards to public.

[00:02:18]>> You have an Academy Award, right?

[00:02:20]>> I I I should have an Academy Award. I should have an ME. Same thing.

[00:02:24]>> Yeah. I should have an EGOT. I should be Mr. EGOT, but I'm not.

[00:02:28]>> Yeah.

[00:02:28]>> Uhhuh.

[00:02:29]>> So, uh they give >> What was this one for? What was this particular award for? What got these nice folks sued?

[00:02:35]>> Well, it was a joint prize in 2018 to the New York Times and the Washington Post for their coverage of the Russian interference in the 2016 election and for their allegations that there were connections to the Trump um uh committee or the Trump, you know, >> the Russia collusion hoax, which isn't necessarily a hoax.

[00:02:53]>> Yeah. You you mean the hoax? The Russia Russia Russia hoax as he would call it.

[00:02:57]He has to say it three times every time because, you know, that's how his brain works. Yeah. So, so anyway, they they the board kind of commissioned independent reviews. Um they both they both found no discredited claims. Um, and then they said, "No, the warrant stands because we don't find that any of these claims were were unfounded or discredited or any of the the findings in that reporting on the Russia interference coverage was was inappropriate or unfounded or or made up or fabricated or whatever label Trump wants to slap on it." They basically found that it wasn't necessarily a hoax.

[00:03:33]Uh so Trump sued 19 individual board members um in a specific county in Florida for defamation and civil conspiracy and he kept it he's been able to keep it there because we discovered that one of the defendants is a resident of that county. So that's how he's been able to keep it there and that's what we call maneuvering. Yeah. I mean that's you know that's what we call gamesmanship.

[00:03:57]>> Yeah. I mean, look, you know, if you have one defendant that lives in the state in the county, you can keep it there. That was part one of it. And then the second part of the argument was the Pulitzer Committee said, "You don't have any personal jurisdiction over us.

[00:04:12]There's no reason you can't sue us in Florida state court. You could sue us.

[00:04:15]You could sue us in in federal court.

[00:04:17]That would be perfectly permissible."

[00:04:19]But obviously Trump and his lawyers wanted to keep it in state court for, you know, again, pretty obvious reasons, right, Sean?

[00:04:25]>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. Uh, definitely.

[00:04:28]Um, >> so it went up to the court of appeal.

[00:04:31]>> Yeah.

[00:04:32]>> In Florida and it ended up in front of this judge, Jeffrey Counz, who was the chief judge of the fourth district court of appeals in in Florida. And they they gave a very narrow ruling um, which to me, you know, in my humble opinion, seems pretty pretty much of a stretch.

[00:04:48]The first part is the personal jurisdiction aspect. That's probably correct. You have one defendant that lives in the state. You can keep the case in the state. The other part of it though, um, I have real struggles with, and they're saying there's personal jurisdiction here, and you're able to haul these other people into court in Florida because at the time you issued the offensive statement, you knew that Mr. Trump was a resident of Florida and you knew that it would affect the resident of Florida. So, you were directly affecting a resident of Florida. That seems like a stretch.

[00:05:20]>> That Yeah, I think I think that is a stretch, you know, but um, it survived mult multiple attempts. uh for dismissal and I think now it's in in discovery >> which is funny because this is something you and I have talked about several times which is does Trump really want these lawsuits he's filing to go forward well and and it because it because it cuts both ways right because the other side gets to do discovery too it's not like just the person suing gets to ask for and discovery by the way for for our non lawyer listeners or if we have any listeners I don't know I'm kidding we appreciate everyone that tunes in But discovery is a process by which you formally ask questions. It's a it's a legal procedure through which you ask questions. You ask for documents and the other side has to respond under oath and provide written responses to questions, provide documents, turn those over and even sit for depositions and take an oath and answer questions under oath.

[00:06:13]That's what discovery is. And then the board, the people, the nice people that he sued are now demanding Trump's like tax returns, his financial records, psychological and medical records to challenge his damages claims. Uh because he's claiming he's damaged. Um and whenever you claim damages, including financial damage, you put your financial condition at issue and sometimes that opens up the door for you to have to turn over your tax records. Um and I I'm I'm pretty sure Donald Trump doesn't like that fact. So it cuts both ways, right? um this case, as Brian said, you know, does he really want these cases to go forward? I mean, there's there's a cost to Trump for having these cases go forward. Well, what I find interesting too about it, Sean, is that the Pulitzer Committee didn't do any reporting themselves. And what Trump's allegation is is that because you endorsed the reporting by the New York Times and the Washington Post, by implication, you're guilty of the same defamatory acts. But we know, and we've talked about this multiple times in other cases that Trump's brought, that you know, Cash Patel recently brought and others have brought that it's a very high standard to prove. You have to prove actual malice. And so far, these judges in Florida are trying to say that there's at least some evidence of actual malice.

[00:07:27]Man, that is so wrong. But when Trump does things like rewards people like this Judge Coun with a lifetime appointment, these I think these these judges in um Florida are salivating and I think they look at this and go, "God, keep keep supporting Trump and maybe I'll get a juicy appointment. Maybe, you know, he'll curry me which isn't surprise." So Sean, I know in our last couple minutes here, I do want to pivot and explain that this has had zero effect on the Pulitzer Committee. zero effect. Why do I say that? Because yesterday, the Pulitzer Committee announced its awards for 2025. That's right. And they're giving more awards to folks that reported on Donald Trump, specifically on sort of Trump's government overhaul and the human impact it's had on people who have lost jobs and been able unable to put food on their table and things like that. Would you like to know about some of the awards they gave out yesterday? Sure.

[00:08:26]>> Sure. Yeah. away from Trump and you know you got to you really got to hand it to people like this >> go we're getting sued and this was obviously I mean that's part of the whole Trump play card right is is you do things like this you threaten you you go after >> yeah just financial pressure to shut people up but I'm glad it's not working >> yeah so the most prestigious award the public service award went to the Washington Post for its exhaustive reporting I feel like I'm I'm giving an award out myself right now for its exhaustive reporting on the Trump administration's overhaul of federal agencies the human ass impacts and the consequences for government services.

[00:09:00]The next most prestigious award for investigative reporting went to a small publication called the New York Times for deeply reported stories exposing how President Trump shattered constraints on conflict of interest and as you say over and over again has become the grifter and chief. Other notable awards went to the Chicago Tribune for powerful coverage of the administration's militarized immigration sweep of Chicago and to Reuters for recognized in national reporting for documenting how Trump used government power and supporters to expand executive authorities and extract vengeance on his foes. Need I say more?

[00:09:37]>> This sounds like a bunch of fake news.

[00:09:39]Just sounds like a bunch of fake news.

[00:09:41]They're going to get sued again. No, you know, all kidding aside, I'm glad they're still still giving out these awards because this is important. This is what journalists strive for. Uh this is how they get rewarded for their work and this is important work. H holding the government accountable, you know, sniffing out corruption, things like that. This is all important stuff. Um, so good for them and too bad so sad for Trump because I think this case is gonna fail. And he wasn't able to achieve what he tried to do, which was intimidate uh the press from exposing the truth and shedding light on important issues. So good for them, too bad for Trump. And stay tuned. We'll see what happens in this lawsuit. We'll cover it. If anything interesting happens or once it gets thrown out, we we'll be there to cover it. I'm Sean Krenikin. That's Brian Kabet. We're a couple lawyers based out of Los Angeles, California.

[00:10:27]Our show is called Civil Action on the Legal AF network. If you want to reach out to us if you have a a case or some issue you want to talk to us about, you can find us online at kbkawyers.com. If you're another lawyer somewhere else in the country that might want to work with us or just talk shop, you can reach out to us. We'd love to hear from you. We love hearing from everyone that listens.

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