Donald Trump’s legal team has rejected a request by the BBC to disclose financial information as part of his $10bn (£7.7bn) defamation lawsuit against the broadcaster. The US president’s lawyers accused the BBC of a “fishing expedition” after it sought documents to support Trump’s claims of reputational and financial harm from a Panorama documentary about the 2021 Capitol riots.
According to court filings in Miami, Florida, the BBC asked for financial records from the Donald J Trump Revocable Trust, which holds Trump’s business interests, including income, assets, and properties. The request covered hundreds of companies linked to the trust. Trump’s lawyers from Brito PLLC described the demand as “disproportionate” and said it would require the production of “tens of thousands of documents” within 30 days, calling the timeframe “unreasonable”.
The case stems from a Panorama programme broadcast in October 2024 that spliced together two parts of Trump’s speech on 6 January 2021, making it appear he said: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you, and we fight. We fight like hell.” The BBC later retracted the clip and apologised. Trump’s lawyers argue the documentary caused “direct harm” to his “brand, properties and business”.
Court filings show that while the BBC has turned over 45,000 pages of documents in response to 503 requests from Trump’s team, Trump has produced none. In March, the BBC asked a US court to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing it would have a “chilling effect” on reporting and that the documentary, which was not broadcast in the US or Florida, was outside the court’s jurisdiction. That motion is ongoing.
A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team told the Financial Times that the BBC had “intentionally and maliciously defamed” the president by “distorting and manipulating his speech”. The spokesperson added: “No amount of attempted legal manoeuvres can change that fact. President Trump will continue to hold accountable the BBC and all those who traffick in fake news.”
