You're a lawyer and you represent Party B in a lawsuit filed by Party A. You later become a judge. Can you now impartially adjudicate Party A's different lawsuit against Party C?
When you strip away the high-profile names of the people/parties involved, that's the essence of the recusal issue in Trump v. British Broadcasting Corp. (better known as the "BBC").
Just recently, Law 360 reported on President Trump's motion to recuse Magistrate Judge Lett from his lawsuit against the BBC. His basis? He argues that, prior to taking the bench, Judge Lett represented a company that Trump had sued in the SDFLA. That company, Orbis Business Intelligence, Ltd., was one of the defendants in Trump v. Clinton (the case, not the election). Trump argues that Judge Lett's defense of Orbis right before she took the bench creates at least the appearance of impropriety such that she should not be handling discovery disputes in his case. The BBC says that Judge Lett previously represented a different party (Orbis, not the BBC) in litigation that is unrelated to the current litigation and that the motion is just a stall tactic.
You can read the motion to recuse here and the BBC's response here.
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