President Trump must make detailed information about his finances available to attorneys for the BBC in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the venerable UK broadcaster, a Miami federal magistrate judge ruled Tuesday.
The president had accused the Beeb of libeling him by deceptively editing his speech at the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021, ahead of the Capitol riot that delayed the official count of Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory, as part of a broadcast of its “Panorama” program that aired days before the 2024 election.
The initial complaint, filed in December, argued that “the injury to President Trump’s business and personal reputation … and their efforts to falsely, maliciously, and defamatorily portray President Trump as a violent insurrectionist, continue into the present, thereby causing massive economic damage to his brand value and … direct harm to his professional and occupational interests, including, without limitation, the value of his brand, properties, and businesses”.
On Tuesday, US Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett ruled that Trump had to back those claims up, saying: “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,” according to Politico.
Trump attorney Al Brito had tried to argue that his client was now only seeking compensation for damage to his reputation rather than the more than 400 companies under the umbrella of the Trump Organization.
Brito did not immediately say whether he would appeal Lett’s ruling to case judge Roy Altman, a Trump appointee.
