Pulitzer Board audits NYT, WaPo's Trump-Russia collusion stories but won’t rescind awards

The Pulitzer Prize Board said it has decided to stand by the 2018 awards it gave to The New York Times and The Washington Post about the since-disproven claim that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. 

In a press release Monday, the board – whose award has long been considered the top journalism award – said it has reviewed inquiries about the stories, including one from former President Trump.

Trump has threatened to sue the board for not rescinding the two new outlets' prizes.

In response to the inquiries, the Pulitzer Board established two independent reviews to look at the stories after the staff of both newspapers received the 2018 National Reporting prize.

"The separate reviews converged in their conclusions: 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 board said.

In a statement posted Monday on Truth Social, Trump criticized the board, stating that it "has taken away any shred of credibility it had left with its 'response.' "

Trump called the stories "blatant fake news" and said, "Instead of acting with integrity and providing transparency, the Pulitzer Board is running for cover for the biggest reporting failure in modern history: the fake Russia Russia Russia collusion hoax."

He also said the newspapers should do "the honorable thing" and return their prizes.