Daniel Wolfram
The British Broadcasting Corporation has just turned up the heat on Donald Trump and his immediate family.
When Donald Trump decided to sue the English broadcasting giant, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) for $10 billion over what he believes is a false edit in a documentary called Trump: A Second Chance, there is no doubt that he expected to settle the case by now.
After all, that is what he did with American news networks such as ABC News.
However, the BBC has refused to go down the same path. Now, a judge has allowed the broadcasting corporation to target Trump’s children in the next phase of the lawsuit.
Blocked at the gate
According to The Telegraph, a judge has allowed Trump’s children to be served in the ongoing defmation lawsuit.
However, it has proved difficult to actually deliver the subpoenas in person. Couriers attempted to hand court documents to Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner at their home in Florida. Secret Service officers stepped in and refused to receive the delivery.
A separate delivery to Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower in New York also resulted in the same outcome, but the BBC found a clever workaround.
According to The Telegraph, a judge decided the BBC may bypass standard in-person service and send the legal demands directly through email and registered mail.
The judge found “no compelling reason” to stop the electronic delivery. The judge stated that getting these notices into the hands of the family is critical because of the dollar amount of the defamation lawsuit.
in the room on January 6
The BBC originally apologized for misleading viewers in the documentary where two Trump speeches were spliced together. Even so, network lawyers insist the program did not defame anyone, emphasizing that the episode never aired on American television and remained unavailable online across the United States.
With Trump intent on progressing with the lawsuit, the BBC argues that his closest family members hold key testimony in discovery. Both Ivanka and Donald Jr. were in the Oval Office while their father reworked the address. In legal filings, the BBC stated the trio holds “personal knowledge and possession of discoverable information” that could prove vital to its defense.
Trump’s attorneys dismissed the subpoenas as “politically driven.” With the Florida trial set for next year, there is still a chance that this lawsuit could ultimately be settled.
