Donald Trump has abruptly dropped one of the biggest claims in his $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC—just after the broadcaster moved to obtain his financial records.
The president will continue pursuing his defamation case against the BBC. But his legal team has now abandoned the argument that a 2024 Panorama documentary damaged Trump’s businesses and brand, a claim that had opened the door to court-ordered financial disclosures.
The timing is hard to ignore. After Trump alleged that the documentary caused financial harm to his companies, the BBC sought access to business records through the discovery process to evaluate those claims.
Last month, a federal magistrate judge agreed, ordering Trump to turn over documents related to the financial performance of his companies because he had put those alleged business losses at the center of the case.
Rather than produce the records, Trump’s legal team changed course.
In an emergency filing Thursday, his attorneys told the court they were dropping the business-damages portion of the lawsuit altogether, according to The Telegraph.
“The plaintiff no longer intends to pursue a damages theory premised on injury to the plaintiff’s brands and businesses,” the filing states.
Instead, Trump’s lawsuit will now focus solely on alleged damage to his personal reputation.
The change allowed Trump’s attorneys to ask the court to pause the order requiring the disclosure of his company’s financial records, arguing that forcing production would cause “irreparable harm” to the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, which holds the president’s business interests and is managed by Donald Trump Jr.
For now, that strategy appears to have worked.
A judge temporarily stayed the order while the revised claims are considered, meaning Trump will not have to immediately hand over the requested financial documents.
The BBC, however, says Trump’s new position raises even more questions.
In court filings, the broadcaster argued that seeking $10 billion in damages while abandoning claims that his businesses suffered financial harm makes the lawsuit far less convincing.
“Claiming $10bn in harm while purporting to disclaim damage to Plaintiff’s business and professional interests renders it all the more implausible that Plaintiff will ever be able to show such damages,” the BBC’s lawyers wrote.
Trump originally filed the lawsuit in December, alleging that the BBC defamed him by misleadingly editing his Jan. 6 speech in a Panorama documentary that aired in 2024.
