President Donald Trump‘s $10 billion BBC defamation suit backfired Tuesday when a federal judge used Trump’s own damage claims to force the surrender of his financial records.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett made the ruling in Miami federal court following a three-hour hearing.
Trump filed the suit in December 2025, accusing the BBC of deceptively editing his Jan. 6, 2021, speech to make it sound as though he called for violence, according to CNBC.
“All of President Trump’s brand, properties and businesses are impugned or said to have been impugned. Reputational, economic damages, all of that is now at issue in this case,” Lett said, ruling that Trump’s own damage claims left her no choice.
The ruling opens Trump’s finances across more than 400 companies to scrutiny by BBC attorneys, Politico reported.
Trump attorney Al Brito told Lett the case had “evolved,” arguing Trump now sought only reputational damages, not economic ones.
Lett said she lacked the power to strip those claims from the complaint.
“He ran for president of the United States on a platform of the art of the deal,” BBC attorney Chuck Tobin said. “You cannot separate the man and his reputation from his operation of his businesses.”
The hearing also addressed how far the BBC can dig into Trump’s conduct on Jan. 6 — the day a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol — with Lett ruling the network could explore how people heard his words, but no further.
“All of the impressions that were received by President Trump’s statements on Jan. 6 are at issue,” Lett said. “The full relitigation of Jan. 6 is not at issue.”
The BBC is also pressing Trump to answer questions under oath, Politico reported. Tobin said the president’s team was “dragging their feet on giving me a date for the president’s deposition.”
The BBC has asked U.S. District Judge Roy Altman — a Trump appointee — to throw out the suit entirely, arguing the British broadcaster does not have enough of a presence in south Florida for the court to have authority over it, according to Politico. Altman has yet to rule.