A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that President Donald Trump must turn over his financial information to substantiate claims made in a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett of Florida determined that to justify Trump attorneys’ complaint that the president endured “overwhelming financial and reputational harm” due to a BBC documentary titled “Trump: A Second Chance?,” the president must provide a detailed account of his financial information.
Trump’s attorneys put financial and reputational consequences at the core of the original lawsuit.
The attorneys have since moved to narrow the case to reputational damages alone. But the federal judge on Tuesday rejected the claims.
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“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,” the federal judge argued, according to Politico.
It’s still unclear whether Trump’s attorneys plan to appeal the ruling. The president claims that the documentary, which aired days before the 2024 presidential election, was deceptively edited and implies the president incited the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Even though the BBC apologized to Trump for “the manner in which the video clip was edited,” the British news organization insisted its documentary did not defame the president.
During his second term, Trump has sued multiple news outlets for billions of dollars, including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He’s also received more than $30 million in settlements with ABC News and CBS News.
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