Trump Drops Key Claim in $10B Defamation Suit Against BBC to Avoid Giving Up Financial Records

Press Association via AP Images

President Donald Trump abandoned a key claim in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC to keep the president from having to disclose financial records tied to his business empire as part of the legal fight.

Trump filed the lawsuit in December, alleging the BBC defamed him through a Panorama documentary linked to its coverage of his January 6, 2021, speech before the Capitol attack.

An emergency motion filed Thursday by Trump’s legal team withdrew allegations that the broadcaster’s reporting damaged the president’s businesses and brand, instead narrowing the case to claims of personal harm.

“The plaintiff no longer intends to pursue a damages theory premised on injury to the plaintiff’s brands and businesses,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “It is simply the reputational injury to the president, full stop.”

Despite the change, the president is still seeking $10 billion in damages from the broadcaster.

The shift came after a judge ordered Trump to produce financial records because he had previously argued the BBC’s reporting caused economic damage to his commercial interests.

His legal team had argued the disclosure order was “shockingly broad” and warned compliance would cause “irreparable harm” to the trust overseeing Trump’s business assets. They also accused the BBC in earlier filings of attempting to wrongly exploit this litigation for its own political benefit.

Thursday’s revised complaint prompted a Miami judge to temporarily pause the order requiring Trump to hand over financial information relating to the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, which holds the president’s business interests and is managed by his son, Donald Trump Jr.

The BBC has consistently argued that Trump’s financial records were relevant because he alleged the broadcaster’s reporting harmed his commercial interests.

In response to the withdrawal of the allegations, the broadcaster’s lawyers questioned how Trump could still justify the scale of the damages sought.

“Claiming $10 billion in harm while purporting to disclaim damage to Plaintiff’s business and professional interests renders it all the more implausible that Plaintiff will ever be able to show such damages,” the BBC’s lawyers wrote in a court filing.

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