Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
US President Donald Trump has won a temporary pause in his USD 10 billion lawsuit against the BBC, after a federal judge in Florida put on hold an order requiring him to begin disclosing details of his business empire’s financial performance. The judge said he would first consider an amended complaint from Trump that could narrow the case to reputational harm and potentially remove the need for those disclosures.
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The case stems from a BBC documentary in 2024 that used edited footage of Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021, before protesters attacked the Capitol in Washington. Trump says the edit was misleading because it left out, among other parts, a section in which he said he wanted supporters to protest peacefully. The lawsuit is one of several steps he has taken during his second term against media coverage he opposes, through the courts, executive action and public attacks. A trial in the BBC case is provisionally set for February.
Trump filed the lawsuit in December, seeking USD 5 billion in defamation damages and another USD 5 billion for unfair trade practices. The BBC, which is publicly funded, has apologised to Trump over the edit but has rejected the claim that it defamed him. The controversy also led to the resignations of the BBC’s top executive and its head of news.
In Thursday’s order, US District Judge Roy Altman granted Trump a short reprieve from an earlier direction by Miami-based magistrate judge Enjolique Lett, who had ordered him to start producing financial records by Thursday from businesses held by his family trust. Altman said he found it “compelling” that an amended complaint might make those disclosures unnecessary, though the BBC disagrees. The revised complaint has not been made public.
“If the plaintiff’s amendment obviates the need to compel a non-party to disclose confidential financial information,” wrote Altman, a 2019 Trump appointee, “we think it’s prudent to enter a brief stay of the Order until the amendment request is resolved.”
Seth Stern, advocacy director at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said Trump could still drop the case if the BBC succeeds in arguing that financial records remain relevant even if the claim is limited to reputational harm. “Trump has a history of filing lawsuits and then just dismissing them before they get to discovery,” Stern said. “So there’s a chance he’ll do that and I’m sure it’ll give him a day or an hour of embarrassing headlines. But as we’ve seen countless times with Trump’s administration… no one headline seems to stick for very long, and I suspect that one would be no different.”
Stern also said the BBC would be right to argue that financial data still matters because Trump is claiming USD 10 billion in reputational damage. “You cannot claim USD 10 billion in reputational damages when you’re the president of the United States and you won the presidential election after the reporting that you’re complaining about,” he said. “That makes no sense.” He added: “For him to say that discovery into his economic damages is intrusive or in any way problematic, after he placed such an outrageous damages number on his lawsuit, is absurd.”
The BBC case is one of a number of legal and regulatory battles involving Trump and media organisations. He is separately seeking USD 10 billion in a defamation case against The Wall Street Journal over a sexually suggestive letter to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that the newspaper said carried Trump’s signature. His Justice Department also issued and later withdrew subpoenas to several New York Times journalists who reported on security concerns related to his new Air Force One jet gifted by Qatar.
Trump and his administration are also in a dispute with ABC, whose coverage he often criticises. The Federal Communications Commission has begun an early review of eight ABC local broadcast licences well before they are due to expire. Its chairman, Brendan Carr, also appears to be trying to penalise ABC’s programme “The View”, where some hosts speak against Trump, by revoking its exemption from equal-time rules.
The Associated Press has also sued Trump over access to the White House press pool after the news organisation was limited for continuing to use the name “Gulf of Mexico” after the administration ordered it renamed the “Gulf of America”. The AP said it kept the original term because the body of water crosses borders, though it would also note Trump’s new name for it.
Stern said Trump was likely to keep pursuing such cases unless courts begin sanctioning lawyers for filing frivolous lawsuits. “Trump doesn’t care about losing a lawsuit or about spending a little bit of money on legal fees,” Stern said. “He understands full well that these aren’t cases he’s going to win. (But) he’s counting on them costing the defendants more than they cost him, in money, time and distraction. He’s counting on the initial headlines when he files a USD 10 billion lawsuit, making a big splash, and then his subsequent losses being an afterthought.”
For now, the immediate effect of the Florida order is that Trump does not have to begin turning over financial records while the court decides whether his amended complaint changes the scope of the case. The wider dispute with the BBC, and Trump’s broader clashes with media organisations, remain ongoing.
With PTI Inputs
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
