Trump’s legal team object to revealing financial records in BBC defamation case
Donald Trump’s legal team is seeking to block a bid by the BBC to obtain the US president’s financial records as part of his 10 billion dollar defamation case against the broadcaster.
The American leader is seeking substantial damages in a Florida court over the editing of a Panorama documentary from 2024 about the US Capitol riots.
In legal documents, the BBC’s lawyers rejected claims of a “fishing expedition” in requesting information from the Donald J Trump Revocable Trust, which holds the president’s business interests and assets and is managed by his eldest son.
They said the details were needed to assess the financial impact of the programme.
The court papers said: “Defendants have requested information from these entities only because plaintiff alleges without limitation that his financial interests have been impacted by defendants’ actions and because plaintiff is the sole beneficiary of a trust that owns or is associated with nearly 400 entities.”
However, in the same legal documents, the trust, which is also represented by Mr Trump’s lawyers, have argued the BBC’s demand “is premature, improper, and especially burdensome”.
They added: “Although plaintiff has alleged that his businesses have suffered damages as a result of the documentary, that alone does not give defendants carte-blanche to obtain sweeping financial discovery from hundreds of non-parties.”
Both sides are seeking a court ruling on the dispute.
However, as first reported by the Financial Times, Mr Trump’s legal team have requested a delay pending the outcome of a request for a new judge in the matter, which is opposed by the BBC.
They claim, in separate court papers, that magistrate judge Enjolique Lett’s “prior representation of a client that was directly adverse to president Trump creates an appearance of impropriety”.
However, the BBC’s lawyers said: “The impetus for plaintiff’s request appears to be the flat refusal by the Donald J Trump Revocable Trust – a third party that is represented by the same counsel as plaintiff – to provide any financial information under subpoena, despite plaintiff’s claims that the defendants injured ‘the value of his brand, properties, and businesses’.”
In suing the BBC, Mr Trump alleges the Panorama episode, broadcast shortly before the 2024 presidential election he won, caused him reputational and financial injury.
The documentary has faced criticism for giving the impression the US president had encouraged his supporters to storm the Capitol building on January 6 2021 after he lost the election to Joe Biden.
The allegations led the then BBC director-general Tim Davie to announce his resignation.
BBC chairman Samir Shah apologised on behalf of the broadcaster over an “error of judgment” and accepted the editing of the programme gave “the impression of a direct call for violent action”.
However, the broadcaster is seeking to have the case thrown out, warning of the “chilling effect” it would have on “robust reporting on public figures and events”.
It has also challenged the jurisdiction of a Florida court to hear the case given the programme was never aired in the state or the US.
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‘The documentary has faced criticism for giving the impression the US president had encouraged his supporters to storm the Capitol building on January 6 2021 after he lost the election to Joe Biden.’
Yes, because that’s precisely what he did. Litigious distortion of facts doesn’t make awkward questions disappear forever. As the most powerful elected official you should expect and welcome scrutiny.
Let’s not forget all the insurrectionist domestic terrorists he pardoned when they should have been imprisoned for life as dangerous traitors. He can’t pin that one on Sleepy Joe.
But, unfortunately, the BBC did wrong and have gifted him this opportunity.
They had previously apologised to Trump for the way Panorama edited the speech, but disagreed that there was a basis for a defamation claim and rejected his demands for compensation.
It took a whole year for anyone to make a fuss about the edit, when the pot stirring Torygraph published a leak internal BBC memo about it, which led to the resignations of the BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, and its head of news Deborah Turness.
Abuser in chief doesn’t want people to see his secret docs? Trump dumps legal on people to mess them up, he does it because that is what he is. He has used this in the past just to mess people up even though he will lose. He is now using the state to go after Carroll, who he has been found guilt of committing sexual assault on and slander and must pay her a lot of money. He pardoned the people that tried to get at the Vice Pres and then tried to get up a slush fund to pay… Read more »
The BBC did wrong and have admitted it. Of course, they’re now in a precarious position and only have themselves to blame. Hopefully there will still be a BBC left when the dust settles.
It was a minor error in the grand scheme of things. Trump still tried to storm the capitol, he still pardons 1600 insurrectionists, he let off the people that are serving long terms for interfering in voting on his behalf. He should still see the law applied to him but as he has usurped power in the US, anything he does now is for spite and filling his pockets.
None of this happened in the US though, so the state of Florida has no Jurisdiction. More importantly Trump’s lawyers are trying to change the rules as they go along. You can’t claim that something effected your financial reputation and then refuse to show your financial records. Why won’t Trump show his financial records? Is it possibly because he doesn’t pay his taxes and/or because some of his wealth comes in the form of ‘donations’ from sanctioned persons and/or countries?
Stand up to this orange bully. He always backs down.
There’s only one person damaging Donald Trump’s reputation and that is Donald Trump.
They were wrong not to show the splice but they were all his words, not AI as he suggested, and what followed speaks for itself.
But let’s not forget why this oversight happened. Johnson parachuted his people into the BBC to make it more right wing. That meant weakening the very controls that were supposed to stop this sort of thing. You can’t let right wing bias in without letting left wing bias in.