Judge swapped in Trump's defamation case against BBC

What the report says

A new judge has been assigned to Donald Trump’s $10bn defamation lawsuit against the BBC, according to BBC World News. Jeffrey Kuntz, who was nominated by Trump earlier this year and confirmed to a federal post in Florida last month, will now handle the case after replacing Judge Roy Altman. The BBC says Trump’s lawsuit centers on how the broadcaster’s Panorama programme edited a speech he gave outside the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.

The case is being heard in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, where the trial is currently set for February 2027. Trump has asked for a jury trial. The BBC has already apologised for combining two separate parts of the speech in the programme, but it is seeking to have the case dismissed. The broadcaster argues the material does not meet the legal standard for defamation and says the Florida court lacks jurisdiction because the programme was not available there.

BBC World News reported that Kuntz is one of several cases transferred to him after his appointment, and that he previously served as an appeals court judge in Florida. The report also noted that Kuntz had taken part in an earlier Trump-related defamation case involving the Pulitzer Prize board. The change in judge adds another procedural step to a closely watched dispute involving a major news organization and the US president, with the court still to decide the BBC’s dismissal request.