BBC Seeks Subpoenas For Trump’s Family In $10bn Panorama Lawsuit

The BBC has sought court permission to subpoena Donald Trump’s family members for documents and testimony as it defends itself against the US president’s $10bn (£7.4bn) defamation lawsuit over a Panorama episode.

The BBC’s lawyers say Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner have “personal knowledge” of Trump’s intentions when he prepared and delivered the speech at the centre of the case. Their testimony and documents, the BBC argues, could be relevant to Trump’s claim that the programme defamed him by editing together separate sections of his speech before the 2021 Capitol riots.

Court filings show that the BBC’s legal team attempted in May to serve subpoenas on Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump and Kushner. The latest filing asks the court to allow the subpoenas to be served by email and certified mail after attempts to serve them by hand were unsuccessful.

BBC reported that Trump Jr and Ivanka Trump were present when their father revised and delivered his speech. The filing also says Kushner drafted a proposed statement for Trump that would have condemned the use of violence. The BBC’s lawyers cited evidence previously gathered by a US congressional committee in support of their request.

The filing details several unsuccessful attempts to serve the subpoenas. A representative for the BBC’s legal team tried to deliver subpoenas for Ivanka Trump and Kushner at their home in Florida but was refused entry at a police checkpoint. The representative was later told by the Secret Service that the agency could not accept the subpoenas.

A separate attempt was made to serve Trump Jr at Trump Tower in New York. According to the filing, the concierge said the person who normally took such documents may have been at lunch. During another attempt two days later, the representative was told the “legal department” was not in that day.

President Trump’s legal team has been approached for comment. The BBC press office declined to comment.

Trump sued the BBC and its subsidiaries BBC Studios Productions and BBC Studios Distribution in Florida last December over a 2024 Panorama episode. He accused the broadcaster of “intentionally, maliciously and deceptively doctoring” the speech he gave outside the Capitol on 6 January 2021.

The BBC has apologised for an editing error that gave “the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action”. However, it has denied that the edit amounted to defamation.

The BBC has asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the programme did not meet the legal criteria for defamation and was not made available on its US platforms.

BBC reported that Trump’s lawyers last month admitted they had no evidence that the documentary was available in the US through the BBC’s BritBox subscription service, BBC.com, BBC Select or US broadcasters, despite having originally claimed that it was.

Trump also recently agreed to drop BBC Studios from the lawsuit after the BBC argued that the company had “no role in creating or producing the documentary”.

Earlier this month, the judge granted Trump’s request for a delay in handing over financial documents to the broadcaster as part of the lawsuit. The BBC has requested some of Trump’s financial records in relation to his argument that the documentary damaged his business interests.

Trump’s legal team said disclosure of the financial records would cause him “irreparable harm”.

A trial date has been scheduled for February 2027, should the case proceed.

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