A federal court in Miami has allowed the British broadcasting corporation BBC to summon dozens of relatives, close associates and administration officials of Donald Trump to testify as part of its consideration of his $10 billion libel lawsuit. In addition, the court ordered the president to provide financial documents of his companies, which the broadcaster requested during the proceedings. Newsweek reports this.
The corresponding decision based on the results of the first hearing in the case was made by federal magistrate Enzholik Lett.
Trump filed a lawsuit against the BBC in December last year. The occasion was the Panorama documentary, released a week before the 2024 presidential elections. The president claims that the network edited his speech before the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a way that created the false impression that he urged supporters to go to the Congress building and “fight like hell.”
The BBC apologized for the editing but rejected the libel charges. The television company says that in order to defend the lawsuit, it is necessary to establish what Trump's intentions were during the speech and how his words were perceived by others.
In this regard, the BBC has secured the right to request information from the president's inner circle, including his children Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, son-in-law Jared Kushner, former advisers Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn, current adviser Stephen Miller, as well as cabinet members, federal agencies and others associated with Trump's efforts to challenge the 2020 election results.
The president's lawyers objected to the volume of evidence, saying the BBC was trying to turn the dispute over the 12-second film clip into a re-investigation of the events of January 6.
Judge Lett partly agreed that some of the BBC's requests appeared too broad, but refused to ban the collection of evidence entirely.
“I don’t think that just because a documentary touches on the events of January 6th, it’s necessary to re-examine everything that happened on that day,” she said, according to Bloomberg.
In a separate decision, the court ordered Trump to provide financial documents of his companies. The BBC insists the findings are relevant because in the original suit the president claimed the film damaged his brand, properties and commercial interests.
Trump's representatives said in court that the plaintiff's position had changed and his claims were now primarily about reputational damage. However, the judge noted that she must be guided by the current version of the statement of claim, which still contains allegations of financial damage.
After the hearing, a spokesman for Trump's legal team accused the BBC of deliberately distorting the president's speech to interfere with the 2024 presidential election and said the suit should hold the broadcaster liable for libel.
The next step in the process could be an interrogation of Trump himself under oath. The BBC has already requested a date for it, however, according to the television company's lawyers, the president's representatives have not yet agreed on a schedule.
In addition, the BBC is seeking to have the case thrown out, arguing that the Florida court does not have jurisdiction over the British broadcaster. This petition remains pending.
