The BBC fights back in court
The BBC has moved to subpoena members of Donald Trump’s family for documents and testimony, as it defends itself against the US president’s $10bn (£7.4bn) defamation lawsuit. Court filings show that the broadcaster’s legal team tried in May to serve subpoenas on the president’s son Donald Trump Jr, his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Mr Trump is suing the BBC over a Panorama episode that edited together two separate sections of a speech he gave before the 2021 Capitol riots. The BBC has previously apologised for the edit but denies it amounts to defamation.
Who the BBC wants to question
In its latest filing, the BBC’s lawyers argue the family members “have personal knowledge” of the president’s intentions when he delivered the speech, making their accounts relevant to the claim. Drawing on evidence gathered by a US congressional committee, the filing says Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump were present when their father revised and delivered the remarks, and that Jared Kushner drafted a proposed statement condemning the use of violence.
Serving the subpoenas has not been straightforward. A representative who tried to deliver papers to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner at their Florida home was refused entry at a police checkpoint, and the Secret Service later said it could not accept the documents. At Trump Tower in New York, a concierge said the person who normally takes such papers “may be at lunch”; a return visit two days later was told the legal department was not in. The BBC is now asking the court to allow service by email and certified mail.
A botched edit at the centre of the claim
President Trump launched the suit in Florida last December, accusing the BBC of “intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring” his 6 January 2021 speech. The BBC has apologised for an editing error that gave “the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action”, but says the programme does not meet the legal test for defamation and was never made available on its US platforms.
Last month, Mr Trump’s own lawyers admitted they had no evidence the documentary appeared in the US on BritBox, BBC.com, BBC Select or through American broadcasters. The president has also agreed to drop the BBC’s commercial arm, BBC Studios, from the case.
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Where the case goes next
A judge has granted Mr Trump’s request to delay handing financial records to the BBC, which the president’s team argues would cause “irreparable harm”. A trial date of February 2027 has been scheduled if the matter proceeds. The case pits one of the world’s best-known public broadcasters against a litigious US president – and could set a precedent for how far editorial errors expose news organisations to defamation claims on both sides of the Atlantic.
Source: Original report. Rewrite for Your News Website.
