Trump's Legal Team Seeks to Block Financial Records Order in BBC Lawsuit

Donald Trump’s legal team is making an 11th-hour attempt to block a court order that would grant the BBC access to the president’s financial records, as part of his multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the British broadcaster.

Trump claims that the BBC’s 2024 documentary on the January 6 attacks have damaged the president’s business interests. In July, a Miami-based judge ruled that the president would have to start handing over detailed financial records to the BBC by 6 August. The records would reveal details into the hundreds of businesses owned by the US president’s family trust.

Trump’s attorneys asked the court on Wednesday to temporarily pause the enforcement of the court order, arguing the BBC had demanded a “shockingly broad amount of information based on clearly political motivations”.

Trump’s lawyers also asked the court to amend their initial lawsuit to instead focus on the “reputation harm” that was caused by the documentary, which would keep necessary disclosures “proportional to the needs of the case”, the lawyers said.

While it is unclear what Trump’s net worth is, recent financial disclosures showed that he had made more than $2.2bn during his first year back in office.

The lawsuit against the BBC is one of Trump’s several recent attempts to wage legal battles against media outlets that publish critical coverage of him. On Wednesday, Trump’s attorneys tried to argue that a $10bn defamation suit brought against the Wall Street Journal should go to a trial after it reported on a “bawdy” letter the president reportedly included in a birthday book for the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein in 2003. Trump’s justice department also issued and then recalled subpoenas to New York Times journalists after the paper reported on security concerns with the Air Force One presidential jet.

Trump’s initial lawsuit concerns a scene in the BBC documentary, entitled Trump, A Second Chance, that spliced lines from a speech the president made on 6 January 2021. The clip made it appear like Trump directly urged his supporters to attack the US Capitol. The BBC has apologized for the edit but argued the defamation claims have no merit.