Daniel Wolfram
Donald Trump is scrambling to keep the BBC away from looking into the financial side of his businesses.
Donald Trump is no stranger to settling huge lawsuits against major media corporations to his advantage.
Nonetheless, this time he might just have met his match in a lawsuit against the British Broadcasting Corporation.
Because the BBC just tried to get him to show his financial records.
Trump sues the BBC
The lawsuit stems from a BBC documentary from 2024 about the January 6 insurrection attempt at the United States Capitol.
In the documentary, Trump: A Second Chance, there is a scene that edits different points of Trump’s January 6 speech together so it appears he directly encouraged his supporters to go and attack the US Capitol.
Trump chose to sue the BBC because he believed the documentary, among other things, would hurt the value of his businesses.
The BBC has apologized for the way the speech was presented in the documentary, but vehemently denies that Trump should be awarded any of the 10 billion dollars he claims in the lawsuit.
Judge sides with Trump
The BBC then subpoenaed Trump’s business to get a glimpse into his financial records to let the lawyers see if the claim was truthful.
And last month a judge granted the BBC access to records relating to Trump’s business dealings dating back to 2023.
However, yesterday a federal judge in Florida granted a temporary pause on the discovery phase while he considers Trump’s argument for narrowing the lawsuit to exclude his businesses.
Will Trump drop the lawsuit?
There is clearly something Trump and his lawyers do not want the BBC and the public to see by trying to restrict the lawsuit.
Trump’s lawyer Alejandro Brito argued in the legal filing that “once the Trust were to begin handing those records over to the BBC, that disclosure could not be undone, and the Trust’s pending objections could not restore what the BBC will already have seen.”
The BBC argues that the broadcasting giant should be able to dig through his financial records because his public persona and reputation are closely linked to his business acumen.
Trump has a long history of withdrawing claims. If his argument to change the parameters ultimately fails, we may see him drop the lawsuit entirely.
