After years of intimidating journalists and attacking the media, President Donald Trump has arrived at a be-careful-what-you-wish-for moment. His own lawsuit could force open records he spent decades trying to hide and require sworn testimony that can’t be brushed off with a late-night tirade o n Truth Social. : U.S. President Donald Trump shouts an answer to a reporter’s question as he returns to the White House December 17, 2025 in Washington, DC. Earlier, Trump attended a dignified transfer ceremony at Dover Air Force Base for two members of the Iowa National Guard killed in Syria. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) The potential comeuppance landed last week as the Pulitzer Prize Board escalated its legal fight with the president by turning a 2022 defamation lawsuit back on him, filing sweeping discovery demands that would require Trump to produce years of tax returns, detailed financial records, and even medical and prescription histories if he intends to claim damages. The move, disclosed in new court filings reported on by Law Crime and others, marks a sharp turn in a case Trump filed after the board refused to rescind its Pulitzer Prizes awarded for reporting on Russian interference in the 2016 election and Trump campaign ties examined during Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Now, the president’s lawsuit could end up backfiring in a way he never expected. Trump has long denounced the Pulitzer-winning news reports as the “Russia hoax.” But in court, the Pulitzer board is arguing that Trump himself has made his finances, reputation, and health relevant by alleging personal and financial harm. If Trump wants to litigate, the board says, he must open his records and answer questions under oath. ‘They Laugh Behind His Back’: Trump Tried to Punish His Naysayers — Now the White House Is Furious as One Adviser Nobody Wants Gets Rejected Again The discovery requests were filed Dec. 11 in Okeechobee County, Florida, by attorneys from Ballard Spahr and Atherton Galardi Mullen Reeder on behalf of 20 individual board members. The filing gives Trump 30 days from the filing to comply or assert specific privilege claims. “With respect to your responses to the following Requests, if any information is withheld because of a claim of privilege, state the basis for your claim of privilege with respect to such information and the specific ground(s) on which the claim of privilege rests,” the filing states. The defendants are demanding real proof supporting Trump’s claim that the board’s statements in awarding the prizes had a “significant impact” on the 2020 presidential election. They also seek records related to Trump’s other defamation lawsuits, including his countersuits and defenses in the E. Jean Carroll cases, a failed lawsuit against CNN, settled cases involving ABC and CBS, and an ongoing suit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch tied to reporting on Jeffrey Epstein. Most notably, the board is demanding “all” of Trump’s tax returns “from all jurisdictions, including all attachments, schedules, and worksheets” from 2015 to the present, documents sufficient to show “all sources” of income, financial holdings, and liabilities over the same period. The request also reaches into Trump’s health records if he seeks damages related to physical, mental, or emotional injury; this would require he turn over comprehensive medical and psychological records dating back to 2015, including prescription drug histories and documentation from his annual physicals; if he is not seeking such damages, the action demands that he state that explicitly in writing. Trump filed the lawsuit in 2022 after the Pulitzer Prize Board rejected his demand to rescind the 2018 National Reporting prizes awarded jointly to The New York Times and The Washington Post. In a public statement, the board said two independent reviews found that none of the reporting had been discredited. “The Pulitzer Prize Board has an established, formal process by which complaints against winning entries are carefully reviewed,” the statement said, concluding 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 lawsuit has survived multiple procedural challenges. In July 2024, Senior 19th Judicial Circuit Judge Robert Pegg ruled that the board’s statement could be considered “actionable mixed opinion,” rejecting arguments that it was protected under the First Amendment. Pegg later declined to shield internal deliberations from discovery. Public reaction largely approved the board’s aggressive posture. “The Pulitzer Prize Board is demanding what this country did not demand of him before he became president the first time, despite his history,” one commenter on Threads wrote. “This is a really smart move. He’s suing for damages? Let’s see the proof that he has been affected financially and/or physically! Anyone else would have to produce the same evidence,” another said. View on Threads Some voices predicted Trump would jump ship. “He will drop that lawsuit fast!” one critic wrote. Another added, “He always makes a huge deal out of filing these lawsuits, and then tries to very quietly drop them when the tables turn.” “Trump thought he could bully the Pulitzer Prize committee. He doesn’t like it when they struck back. I love it!” one reaction read. Trump’s finances have previously been forced into public view. In December 2022, a House committee released six years of his tax returns after prolonged legal battles, revealing that he paid relatively little in federal taxes in several years before and during his presidency.  His health has also come under renewed scrutiny following a diagnosis of chronic venous insufficiency, along with persistent bruising and scaling on his right hand, which the White House attributed to frequent handshaking. On social media, critics noted that the hand bruise appeared to linger far longer than the injury to his ear, which was grazed last summer during an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, but appeared fully healed in the weeks that followed. Previously, Trump’s campaign released a memo from Rep. Ronny Jackson detailing the gunshot wound. “Given the broad and blunt nature of the wound itself, no sutures were required,” Jackson wrote. Meanwhile, legal experts say the current discovery fight underscores a familiar risk in defamation cases: plaintiffs cannot invoke harm while shielding evidence that might undermine the claim. It’s unclear how Trump will respond to the motion. Previously, his legal spokesperson told Fox News the case would reach a “winning conclusion,” calling it a “powerhouse lawsuit.”  In any event, the Pulitzer board has made clear it will not retreat, rewrite history, or retract awards just because Trump demands it. ‘This Is Epic’: Trump Tried to Punish Reporters — Now His Own Lawsuit Could Expose His Biggest Secrets ...read more read less