Donald Trump has earned a reputation as a president who loves to file outlandish lawsuits against major news organizations, but his gambit late last year against the BBC was bizarre even for him.
The week before Christmas, the Republican sued the British broadcaster for $10 billion over a news program that focused on the Jan. 6 attack. Defending the litigation, Trump told reporters that the network “literally put words in my mouth,” adding, “I guess they used AI. … They actually put terrible words in my mouth having to do with Jan. 6 that I didn’t say.”
That wasn’t quite right. For one thing, the BBC didn’t use artificial intelligence. For another, the network did air a program that edited Trump’s Jan. 6 speech, connecting two clips that were delivered roughly 50 minutes apart, but the news outlet didn’t manufacture words or phrases out of whole cloth.
Nevertheless, the editing sparked a controversy that led to an internal investigation, and the BBC ultimately fired some senior officials and issued a written apology.
Trump, however, apparently doesn’t want an apology. He wants $10 billion.
Time will tell whether the case bears fruit, but in the meantime, there’s fresh evidence that the civil suit might backfire on the plaintiff. Politico reported:
A federal magistrate judge ruled Tuesday that President Donald Trump must turn over detailed financial information in connection with his defamation lawsuit against the BBC.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett concluded that Trump’s sweeping complaint put injury to his businesses at the forefront and made their vitality a fair subject for the BBC to demand information about.
In other words, Trump’s lawyers said the president is entitled to a massive payout because the BBC’s program hurt his business interests. With this in mind, the BBC’s lawyers said they needed detailed access to Trump’s financial records to assess the validity of the underlying claims.
The president’s legal team pushed back, but at least for now, they’re losing.
“All of President Trump’s brand, properties and businesses are impugned or said to have been impugned. Reputational, economic damages, all of that is now at issue in this case,” Lett said at the conclusion of a three-hour hearing.
The Politico report added that her decision “opened the door for the BBC to explore the finances of more than 400 companies owned by a Trump family trust.”
What’s more, a report in The Guardian added, “Lett is also allowing the BBC to subpoena dozens of members of Trump’s inner circle, according to Bloomberg News, in an effort to find evidence of the president’s thoughts and intentions on January 6. Those subpoenas will target Trump family members and key advisers, including Donald Trump Jr, Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller.”
In case that weren’t quite enough, since Trump’s Jan. 6 rhetoric is directly relevant to the case, the BBC is also moving forward with demands for records from special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, which the news organization insists are necessary as part of its defense.
To be sure, the president and his team can appeal the latest setbacks. But given Trump’s ugly track record on cases against media outlets, he might want at least to consider abandoning this dubious case before things get worse.
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