‘Kick Him Off The Bench.’ A Judge in Trump’s Pulitzer Case Gets a Prize
Question Everything
Brian Reed
4.6 • 707 Ratings
🗓️ 28 May 2026
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Freedom of the Press Foundation just filed an ethics complaint against Florida Judge Jeffrey Kuntz, who has been nominated by President Trump for a lifetime federal court appointment. They want him stripped of his gavel and his law license.
Why? Judge Kuntz was one of the judges who ruled in Trump’s favor in his peculiar defamation lawsuit against the Pulitzer Prize board. The Freedom of the Press Foundation claims the judge handed Trump this victory while, behind the scenes, he was seeking a nomination from the Trump administration for a federal judgeship.
While Judge Kuntz’s nomination is being considered by the Senate, we revisit an episode we first aired in February 2025 about this strange lawsuit against the organization behind journalism’s most prestigious award.
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Guests:
- Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of Semafor and co-host of the Mixed Signals podcast
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Transcript
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| 0:33.7 | Mr. Coons. Thank you, Chairman Grassley, Ranking Member Durbin, and Acting Chair Cornyn. |
| 0:45.5 | A few weeks ago, a state-level judge from Florida, Jeffrey Koontz, testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in D.C., hoping to get confirmed for a lifetime federal court appointment that Donald Trump has nominated him for. |
| 0:57.6 | I would like to thank President Trump for entrusting me with the privilege to being nominated to |
| 1:01.3 | the Southern District of Florida, a district where I spent much of my career as an attorney. |
| 1:05.6 | Then, just last week, while the Senate is still considering his nomination, an organization |
| 1:09.5 | called the Freedom of the Press Foundation, filed an ethics complaint against Judge Kuntz. |
| 1:14.4 | What are you hoping will happen? |
| 1:16.0 | Kick him off the bench. |
| 1:17.7 | This is Seth Stern. He's Chief of Advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation and helped file the complaint. |
| 1:23.2 | It's quite a severe punishment they're hoping for. Here Judge Kuntons is on the verge of being confirmed by the Senate for a huge promotion, |
| 1:30.5 | a lifetime federal judgeship. |
| 1:32.7 | But instead of giving him that, Seth wants the Judicial Board in Florida to take away Judge Coons' gavel |
| 1:37.8 | and to strip him of his law license altogether. |
| 1:40.8 | And here's why. |
| 1:43.0 | Judge Coons recently ruled on a defamation lawsuit that Donald Trump |
| 1:47.2 | has filed in Florida, against, of all places, the Board of the Pulitzer Prizes, the most prestigious |
| 1:52.7 | award in journalism. As we all know, the president is on a legal crusade against the press. He |
... |
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