Judge Halts Order for Trump to Share Financial Records With BBC

Trump's legal team argued that disclosure of the financial records would cause him "irreparable harm" and that no such revelations should be made until the court rules on an objection to the order requiring the disclosure. Trump has also recently asked to amend his main case, which his lawyers said would make the document release unnecessary. The president has asked for his central complaint against the BBC to be amended so it no longer claims the documentary damaged his brands and businesses, but rather for damages for "the reputational injury to the President, full stop."

In a ruling on Thursday, the judge said the order for financial information disclosure would be paused until the amendment question is resolved. The BBC had said Trump's request for a delay to disclosure was "a transparent effort to evade this court's clear and direct order and to continue to avoid the discovery obligations that the plaintiff took on when he chose to file this lawsuit." Trump's lawsuit, filed in Florida, accuses the BBC of "intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring" the speech he gave outside the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The BBC has apologized for an editing error that gave "the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action," but has asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the program doesn't meet the legal criteria for defamation and wasn't made available on its US platforms. Trump's lawyers admitted they had no evidence that the documentary was available in the US on the BBC's BritBox subscription service, as they had originally claimed, or on BBC.com, BBC Select or through US broadcasters. Trump also recently agreed to drop the BBC's commercial arm BBC Studios from his lawsuit.