SCOTUS might have handed Tr*mp some wins this week, but he’s also faced some pretty catastrophic losses. Not only did he lose the argument over birthright citizenship and is still being held liable for paying victim E. Jean Carroll $5 million out of pocket, he’s facing yet another lawsuit as a result of his well-known FAFO tendencies. But this time, the beef is with the BBC.
In case you need a refresher, here’s the TL;DR: Last year, Tr*mp filed suit against the British news giant, claiming that a portion of a documentary on the January 6th riots was edited out of context. The Panorama documentary aired in October of 2024, shortly before the US election, and featured an edited version of a Tr*mp speech that, according to Tr*mp’s legal team, made it look like the president was inciting the riots in plain terms. The suit claimed that the clip presented a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and
malicious depiction of President Trump” that caused potential financial and reputational harm, as well as harming his chances in the election.
Well, we know it didn’t harm his chances too much, but that’s besides the point. While Tr*mp fought his hardest to punish the BBC for not showing him in the most wonderful light, the court was not impressed. They tried to throw out the suit altogether, but Tr*mp’s people fought back to keep it alive.
That was their mistake, because now the entire thing is coming back to bite Tr*mp in the most painful area possible… the DMs.
How about we take this to the next level?
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After Tr*mp’s team pushed to keep the case alive in early June, the BBC hit back with the best counter attack of all: discovery.
Now, as a result of the ongoing suit, Tr*mp must hand over all his phone logs, diary entires, and potentially any social media DMs and interactions from January 6th, 2021, the day of insurrection.
Whoops!
Tr*mp’s next move is painfully obvious: he’s going to try to fight the request for discovery, just as he fought the request for financial disclosure related to the case earlier last month. But there’s a key difference here…
While Tr*mp’s lawyers can claim that financial records aren’t relevant to the case, private interactions made on the day of the Capitol riots couldn’t be more relevant to the case he’s making. If the BBC documentary is being accused of representing Tr*mp in a false light, they need to know his exact role in the insurrection, something Tr*mp has done his best to keep on the DL for years.
While anything turned up in discovery won’t be made public unless the case goes to trial, the BBC will be able to see everything. And we know when a news organization gets access to explosive documents about powerful men those findings don’t tend to stay private for long.
It’s yet another case of Tr*mp being hoist by his own petard, even if the discovery comes a bit too late to prevent another term in the White House. Whether Tr*mp’s team decides to fight the request or comply, it’s going be bad news. Either Tr*mp’s failure to provide those phone logs will lose him the suit in an embarrassing public failure, or the logs prove what the BBC—and the rest of us—already knew.
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Tr*mp’s Great American State Fair brings back his greatest humiliation
Nobody is showing up for Tr*mp.
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