White House Demands Reporters' Pulitzer Prizes Be Stripped for 'Perpetuating a Hoax'

The White House demanded that journalists who won Pulitzer Prizes for coverage of Russian interference in the 2016 election have their awards stripped for "perpetuating a hoax."

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt bashed reporters during a White House press briefing Wednesday following a release from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence claiming to have uncovered "overwhelming evidence" that the reports were "manufactured" by former President Barack Obama.

"This is truly one of the greatest political scandals in American history, and reporters at legacy outlets, some of which are sitting in this room today like the New York Times and the Washington Post were ridiculously awarded Pulitzer Prizes for their perpetuation of this hoax. It is well past time for those awards to be stripped from the journalists who received them," she said.

The Washington Post and the New York Times both won a Pulitzer for National Reporting in 2018 for their coverage of the interference.

Despite reports and conclusions from American intelligence and Department of Justice officials, President Donald Trump has continued to claim there was no interference. He previously requested that the Pulitzer Board take back the awards, but his appeal was denied, the New York Times reported in 2022.

"It is not journalism to propagate political disinformation in service of the Democrat Party and those in the intelligence community who hand over out of context and fake intelligence to push a false political narrative," Leavitt continued.

While Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's office claimed the Obama administration laid the groundwork for "a years-long coup against President Trump," the Senate Intelligence Committee investigation was actually led by Republicans.

The 2020 report agreed with the results of a 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment, which concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin directed a campaign to spread disinformation to hurt Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Obama's office said in a statement that although it "does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House ... these claims are outrageous enough to merit one," before calling the Trump administration's release "ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction."

The Trump administration has been under intense fire recently over the handling of the files on Jeffrey Epstein, following a report by the DOJ and FBI declaring that he had killed himself and had no client list. However, Trump called for "Grand Jury testimony" to be procured and released with a judge's approval after the Wall Street Journal reported that the president previously sent Epstein a drawing of a naked woman in a birthday message. Trump has denied the article's claims.

Gabbard defended her office's release, stating on Newsmax Tuesday night, "We will be releasing further documents tomorrow that will refute that statement."