Eric Trump, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, and Donald Trump Jr. arrive at the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Donald Trump will be inaugurated for his second term as the 47th President of the United States.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The BBC has asked a US court for help in obtaining documents and testimony from US President Donald Trump’s family in connection with a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the British broadcaster, court documents show.
In a filing Friday in Florida federal court, lawyers for the BBC argued that Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump Jr. have “personal knowledge” and likely have records relevant to elements of Trump’s claims against the broadcaster.
The station was unable to subpoena the three men because they were surrounded by Secret Service guards and other security personnel, the filing said.
President Trump filed a lawsuit against the BBC in December seeking $10 billion in damages for defamation and deceptive and unfair trade practices.
The allegations center on how a 2024 documentary edited a speech President Trump gave on January 6, 2021, before protesters stormed the Capitol in Washington. The lawsuit accuses the BBC of “splicing together two disparate parts of President Trump’s speech” in order to “deliberately misrepresent the meaning of President Trump’s remarks.”
It added that the edits were a “brazen attempt to interfere and influence” the 2024 US presidential election.
The BBC apologized to President Trump for the misleading edits, but said it had not defamed him.
The latest court filings say Trump’s family was aware of issues related to Trump’s assertion on January 6, 2021, that “to imply that Mr. Trump incited violence is materially false.”
The newspaper cited that both Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump were in the Oval Office when Trump was revising his speech, and added that Donald Trump Jr. spoke directly to his father after the violence erupted at the Capitol.
The BBC asked Trump to instruct the Secret Service to either accept the subpoena on behalf of his daughter and son-in-law or allow it to be served, but Trump refused, according to the filing. The station asked the court to allow the subpoena to be sent by email and certified mail.
The judge gave Trump’s lawyers until Friday to respond to the BBC’s request.
Trump’s lawyers said: “The BBC is simply trying to distract from its clear responsibility.”
“The BBC has deliberately defamed President Donald J. Trump, and now the BBC is attempting to exploit the deposition process to harass President Trump, his family, and his supporters,” the team said.
A trial is tentatively set for February.
A federal judge in Florida last week granted a temporary stay of an order requiring President Trump to provide details of his business empire’s financial performance as part of a lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Roy Altman agreed to put the order on hold while he considers an amended complaint that narrows Trump’s claims of damage to both his business and reputation.
