“The BBC intentionally defamed President Donald J. Trump, and now the BBC is seeking to harass him, his family, and supporters by abusing the deposition process,” the president’s legal team said.
The BBC has asked a U.S.-based court for assistance getting documents and testimony from members of President Donald Trump’s family in connection with his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the company.
According to The Associated Press, lawyers for the BBC argued that three members of the president’s family—Donald Trump, Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Ivanka’s husband, Jared Kushner—likely have “personal knowledge” and, potentially, records relating to the lawsuit’s key allegations.
“The Third Parties have personal knowledge and likely have possession, custody, or control of records relevant to multiple elements of Plaintiff’s claims against the BBC,” the network said in its filing.
The BBC also said that it has so far been unable to serve any of the three because they are constantly surrounded by Secret Service agents and other security personnel.
The lawsuit was originally filed in December; it demands that the BBC pay more than $10 billion to settle claims that it defamed Trump by editing a speech delivered on January 6, 2021, shortly before protesters attacked the U.S. Capitol in Washington. It accuses the United Kingdom-based broadcaster of deceptively “splicing together two entirely separate parts of President Trump’s speech” to “intentionally misrepresent the meaning of what President Trump said.” This editing, the complaint says, was “a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence” the outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
The BBC has since apologized to Trump for the edit but maintains that it did not defame the president.
In its latest round of filings, the BBC claims that Trump’s families should be compelled to testify, as they likely have knowledge of events and facts central to the president’s claim “that it would be materially false to imply that he incited violence” on January 6.
Trump’s legal team, for its part, says that “the BBC is simply trying to distract away from their own obvious liability.”
“The BBC intentionally defamed President Donald J. Trump, and now the BBC is seeking to harass him, his family, and supporters by abusing the deposition process,” the president’s legal team said.
The court overseeing the case has given the president’s lawyers until Friday to respond to the BBC’s request.
Sources
BBC asks a US court for help in getting testimony from the Trump family in defamation suit
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