Donald Trump ordered to disclose financial records in BBC defamation case

A U.S. federal judge in Miami, Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett, ruled that President Donald Trump must turn over detailed financial records from the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, which controls more than 400 companies, as part of his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The lawsuit stems from a 2024 BBC Panorama documentary that edited together segments of Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021 speech, which the broadcaster later apologized for, alleging the edit falsely suggested he incited the Capitol riot. The BBC is seeking the records to assess the claimed economic damage to Trump’s business empire and has also subpoenaed emails, texts and other communications from Trump’s close advisers and family members, including Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller and Michael Flynn. The court noted a disparity in discovery: the BBC produced about 87,000 pages of documents, while Trump’s side provided only roughly 735 pages, largely public news articles. Trump’s lawyers argue the requests are overly broad and oppressive and plan to appeal. The decision also allows the BBC to pursue Trump’s personal text messages from the three‑hour window surrounding his Jan. 6 speech.