politics
Florida Judge Orders Trump to Release Financial Records but Leaves BBC Dismissal Request Pending
A judge in Miami ruled President Donald Trump must turn over financial records held by his revocable trust to the BBC. The order came during the first hearing in the $10 billion defamation case over a Panorama edit of his January 2021 speech.
Jul 21, 7:45 PM·1m read1 source
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A Florida judge has ordered President Donald Trump to hand over financial records to the BBC in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit. Judge Enjoliqué Lett issued the ruling Tuesday in Miami during the first hearing in the case. The order compels release of documents from the Donald J Trump Revocable Trust, created to manage the president's businesses while in office.
The lawsuit concerns a Panorama episode that edited together sections of Trump's January 6, 2021 speech. The BBC produced 87,000 pages of documents during discovery. Trump's side released 735 pages that BBC lawyers described as a sham production consisting of news articles and material pulled from the internet.
BBC counsel Charles Tobin said the discovery process had been entirely one-sided. Trump's counsel Alejandro Brito described the BBC's document requests as oppressive and sweeping. BBC Chairman Samir Shah sent a letter to President Trump in November 2025 apologizing for the Panorama clip.
Shah stated it unintentionally gave the mistaken impression that Trump made a direct call for violent action. The judge's ruling can still be appealed. The BBC has sought to have the entire case dismissed on the grounds that the documentary was not broadcast in the US, but the court has yet to rule on that motion.
