‘Kick Him Off The Bench.’ A Judge in Trump’s Pulitzer Case Gets a Prize

May 28, 2026 · 40 min

About this episode

The episode discusses an ethics complaint against Judge Jeffrey Kuntz related to his ruling in Trump's defamation lawsuit against the Pulitzer Prize board.

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.  Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory . And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter . Guests: Ben Smith , editor-in-chief of Semafor and co-host of the Mixed Signals podcast Please support the organizations that support this show: Go to https://zbiotics.com/QUESTION and use QUESTION at checkout for 15% off any first-time orders of ZBiotics probiotics…

People in this episode

Host: Brian Reed

Guest: Ben Smith

Topics covered

ethics complaint
judicial nomination
defamation lawsuit
freedom of the press
Trump administration
Pulitzer Prize

Keywords

Judge Jeffrey Kuntz
Trump
defamation lawsuit
Pulitzer Prize
ethics complaint
freedom of the press
Ben Smith

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Freedom of the Press Foundation, Pulitzer Prize, KCRW, Placement Theory, Semafor, Mixed Signals

Products: ZBiotics, Quince, Ground News