US President Donald Trump is urging a federal judge to reject the BBC’s request for help in obtaining testimony and documents from three family members concerning his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the broadcaster. Trump’s lawyers argue that the BBC is seeking “politically-driven leverage” by issuing subpoenas to his daughter Ivanka Trump, son-in-law Jared Kushner, and son Donald Trump Jr.
US District Judge Jeffrey Kuntz in Miami has not yet ruled on the matter. Kuntz, appointed by Trump, recently took over the case from another judge, who set a trial date for February.
In May, a BBC process server attempted to serve subpoenas on Ivanka Trump and Kushner but was met by Secret Service agents. A similar attempt to serve Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower also failed. The BBC has since requested permission to send subpoenas via certified mail.
Trump’s lawsuit, filed in December, claims the BBC deceptively edited his speech on 6 January 2021, when a mob attacked the Capitol, to misrepresent his statements. The lawsuit asserts that the documentary aired a week before the 2024 election to undermine Trump.
“The relief that the BBC’s Motion seeks cannot be segregated from the politically charged discovery campaign that it is based on, and which has already been ruled as improperly overbroad by this Court,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
While the BBC has apologised for the misleading edit, it denies any defamation.
This article used information from The Associated Press.
