Donald Trump‘s multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the British Broadcasting Corporation (the BBC) may be backfiring.
Trump’s legal action centers on a 2024 BBC documentary about the Jan. 6 riots, which spliced together two clips from a speech to make it sound as if he was explicitly urging his supporters to attack the US Capitol.
Trump did separately say that his supporters should “walk down to the Capitol” and later “fight like hell.” However, these were not a continuous statement and the intervening comments in which he called for a peaceful demonstration were omitted. The BBC admitted its error, apologized to Trump, and two executives resigned as a result.
The threat of discovery
Trump went on to claim that the documentary was defamatory, that it violates Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, and is seeking $10 billion in damages. But a recent development in the lawsuit has seen his lawyers making a last-minute plea relating to discovery. As per The Guardian, the BBC’s legal argument will be that Trump cannot prove that the documentary caused him financial harm, as his personal wealth has soared since it aired.
And so, on July 22, Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett ruled that Trump must hand the BBC detailed financial information from across his many businesses. In addition, Lett ruled that the BBC is allowed to subpoena Trump family members and advisers, including Donald Trump Jr, Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller.
Trump’s attorneys are fighting back and trying to block the order, describing it as covering a “shockingly broad amount of information based on clearly political motivations”. They are also seeking to amend their claim to remove the argument that the documentary caused financial harm to Trump, seeking to focus on their argument that it caused “reputation harm”.
This is, of course, only one of Trump’s legal battles with the media. Trump is still pursuing a multi-billion defamation claim against The Wall Street Journal for publishing a birthday letter allegedly from Trump to Jeffrey Epstein. This lawsuit was dismissed in April, but refiled in May, and a new decision on dismissal is pending.
Trump’s attorneys also attempted to subpoena journalists from The New York Times after they reported security concerns relating to Air Force One, though after a judge said the request was not in “basic compliance with the law” the request was withdrawn.
The deadline for Trump’s to begin handing over the information is today, so we should know soon whether this last-minute application has been accepted.
Published: Aug 6, 2026 05:41 am