United States President Donald Trump has called on a federal court to deny a motion by the BBC to subpoena members of his immediate family, as part of a $10bn lawsuit over a documentary the broadcaster aired. On Friday, lawyers for Trump argued that the BBC had embarked on a “politically charged discovery campaign” by seeking to compel testimony from Trump’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr, his first daughter Ivanka Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Trump’s team appealed to the court to reject the BBC’s motion, comparing it to a fishing expedition that goes beyond the scope of the case.
Part of the documentary focuses on the events of January 6, 2021, the day the results of the 2020 election were to be certified. Trump had lost that election but falsely claimed his defeat was the result of fraud. At a speech in front of the White House on that day, he repeated the unfounded accusation that the election had been “rigged” to a rally of his supporters, some of whom participated in an attack on the US Capitol in the hours afterwards.
The Panorama episode included snippets from Trump’s speech, and critics argued that two sentences from his address had been edited together to sound like one continuous quote. The first line was: “After this, we’re going to walk down, and I’ll be there with you, we’re going to walk down.” The second came from later in the speech: “And we fight. We fight like hell.” Though the BBC apologised for the editing and took the Panorama episode down from its platforms, Trump nevertheless filed a multibillion-dollar lawsuit accusing the broadcaster of defamation.
The BBC has denied that charge and pledged to fight the lawsuit in court. The case is currently being heard before the US district court in southern Florida. As part of its defence, the BBC has sought testimony from figures close to Trump, to establish his thoughts and actions on the day of the January 6 attack.
It pointed out that both Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump were present at their father’s speech, and that they spoke to the president and his inner circle as the violence erupted at the Capitol. Text messages released by the US Congress show Donald Trump Jr urged his father’s chief of staff to “condemn this shit. Asap”, a fact cited in the BBC’s motion.
While Kushner was not present at the White House, the BBC maintains that his role as Trump’s adviser would also help establish the facts of that day. Lawyers for the broadcaster say that, after speaking with congressional leaders, Kushner drafted “a proposed statement” for Trump to present, “which would have condemned the use of violence”. The testimony of Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump and Kushner can help illustrate the president’s “burden to prove that it would be materially false to imply that he incited violence on January 6”, according to the BBC’s motion.
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