Donald Trump Faces Major Legal Setback in $10 Billion BBC Lawsuit

Donald Trump has been directed to turn over financial records tied to nearly 400 companies controlled through a trust run by his eldest son, marking a significant setback in the President’s $10 billion defamation battle with the BBC.

The ruling came after a three-hour hearing in Miami on Tuesday, where Trump failed to keep records from the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust out of the case. The trust, which holds much of his wealth, is overseen by Donald Trump Jr.

US Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett concluded that Trump’s own lawsuit had placed his business empire squarely at the center of the proceedings.

“All of President Trump’s brand, properties and businesses are impugned or said to have been impugned. Reputational, economic damages, all of that is now at issue in this case,” Lett said, according to Politico.

The judge also declined to block a series of BBC subpoenas targeting Trump’s inner circle and family members, including Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, Stephen Miller and Donald Trump Jr.

The broadcaster is seeking all communications the six had about the “Stop the Steal” rally, along with any material they provided to federal investigators examining the January 6 riot. The BBC argues the records could help establish Trump’s state of mind that day.

At the heart of the defamation lawsuit is a 12-second edit of Trump’s January 6, 2021 speech that appeared in a Panorama documentary aired shortly before the 2024 election.

In the broadcast, viewers heard Trump say: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol … and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.” Trump contends the “fight” remarks were made more than 50 minutes later, and that the edit falsely suggested he was urging the crowd to attack the Capitol.

BBC Director-General Tim Davie quit in the fallout and Chairman Samir Shah wrote to Trump last November admitting it ‘gave the mistaken impression that you had made a direct call for violent action.’

The Trump trust is tied to nearly 400 entities and Trump is its sole beneficiary, BBC filings state. His lawyers had dismissed the demand as a fishing expedition.

The BBC says the records will show the President’s wealth has climbed by more than $1 billion in the past year, contradicting his claim that the documentary cost him money, Bloomberg reported.

Trump’s legal team tried to defuse the ruling by retreating, dropping the economic damage claims and pursuing only harm to his reputation.

Attorney Alejandro Brito said the President had shifted position since filing, describing the case as having ‘evolved’. ‘The damages are limited in a way that is different from when the case was originally filed,’ Brito told the judge.

He added: ‘Even if there has been a harm to the brand, we are not pursuing that as part of our damages … It’s a far more narrow scope of what this case is about.’

Lett said she had no power to strike the business claims herself.

BBC lawyer Chuck Tobin told her the distinction was meaningless. ‘He ran for President of the United States on a platform of the art of the deal,’ Tobin said. ‘You cannot separate the man and his reputation from his operation of his businesses.’

The broadcaster is also pushing to put Trump under oath. ‘They have ignored our request to schedule the President’s deposition,’ Tobin said. ‘They’re dragging their feet on giving me a date.’

Trump can appeal to District Judge Roy Altman, whom he appointed. The BBC is separately fighting to have the case thrown out, arguing a Florida court has no jurisdiction over a TV show that never aired in the US.

A spokesman for the President’s legal team said: ‘The formerly respected and now disgraced BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech in a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 presidential election.’