Judge orders Trump to disclose records in BBC suit

A federal judge has ordered the disclosure of financial records from a trust holding former President Donald Trump's business interests, a significant development in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC. The ruling came on Tuesday, July 21, 2026, during a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett in Miami, Florida.

Trump filed the lawsuit in December 2025 over a BBC Panorama documentary broadcast in 2024. He alleges the program misleadingly edited a 12-second clip from a speech he delivered before the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack, creating the false impression that he directly called for violence. The lawsuit claims this portrayal caused substantial damage to his personal reputation and financial interests.

Judge Lett ruled that subpoenas issued by the BBC for financial documents are reasonable given the scope of Trump's claims. She stated that reputational and economic damages are now at issue in the case, clearing the way for the broadcaster to seek records connected to hundreds of entities within the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, which is managed by Donald Trump Jr. Trump's legal team had opposed the requests, arguing they constituted an...