- BBC seeks testimony from Trump’s family members
- The case centres on an edited January 6 speech
- A trial is scheduled for February 2027
The BBC has asked a US court for permission to subpoena members of President Donald Trump’s family as it prepares to defend itself against his $10 billion defamation lawsuit over a controversial Panorama programme.
Eko Hot Blog reports that the court documents show that the broadcaster’s lawyers attempted in May to obtain documents and testimony from Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., his daughter, Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
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The legal dispute centres on a 2024 Panorama episode that combined separate portions of a speech Trump delivered shortly before the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. The editing created the impression that Trump had directly encouraged violent action.
The BBC has acknowledged the editing error and apologised, but maintains that the incident does not meet the legal threshold for defamation.
In its latest court filing, the broadcaster argued that Trump’s family members could provide relevant evidence because they were familiar with his preparation for and delivery of the speech.
The BBC said congressional evidence indicates that Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka were present while their father prepared and revised the speech. It also claimed that Kushner had prepared a proposed statement for Trump that would have condemned violence.
The broadcaster wants the court to permit the subpoenas to be delivered electronically and by certified mail after several attempts to serve the documents personally were unsuccessful.
According to the filing, an attempt to serve Ivanka Trump and Kushner at their Florida residence was blocked at a security checkpoint. A BBC legal representative was later informed that the Secret Service could not accept the subpoenas on their behalf.
Efforts to serve Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower in New York also reportedly failed. On one occasion, the representative was told that the staff member responsible for receiving legal documents was unavailable, while a subsequent visit was met with a response that the legal department was not present.
Trump’s lawyers have been approached for a response, while the BBC declined to comment beyond its court filings.
Trump filed the lawsuit in Florida last December against the BBC and its subsidiaries, accusing the broadcaster of deliberately manipulating his January 6 speech.
The BBC has maintained that the programme’s editing was an error and argued that the documentary did not satisfy the legal requirements for a defamation claim.
The broadcaster has also challenged Trump’s claim that the programme was distributed to US audiences through platforms including BritBox and BBC.com. Trump’s legal team recently acknowledged that it had no evidence supporting some of those distribution claims.
Trump has since agreed to remove BBC Studios from the lawsuit after the broadcaster argued that the commercial subsidiary had no role in producing the documentary.
The court has also granted Trump additional time to provide financial records requested by the BBC. The broadcaster is seeking the documents in connection with Trump’s claim that the programme harmed his business interests.
A trial is currently scheduled for February 2027 if the case proceeds.
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