President Donald Trump has accused the BBC of harassing his family after the state-funded broadcaster’s lawyers tried to force his children and son-in-law to testify in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit.
The corporation’s legal team asked a Florida court for authorisation to serve subpoenas on Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. Court filings show the BBC claims the three “have personal knowledge and likely have possession, custody, or control of records relevant to multiple elements” of the case.
Attempts to deliver the papers in person were repeatedly blocked by the Secret Service and local law enforcement.
A spokesman for Trump’s legal team made the president’s position clear: “The BBC intentionally defamed President Donald J. Trump, and now the BBC is seeking to harass him, his family, and supporters by abusing the deposition process. The BBC is simply trying to distract away from their own obvious liability.”
The BBC’s process servers tried to hand documents to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner at their Florida home, only to be stopped at a police checkpoint. The Secret Service later confirmed it could not accept the subpoenas on their behalf.
Separate attempts to serve Donald Trump Jr at Trump Tower in New York were turned away by security and staff who said the legal department was unavailable.
Unable to complete personal service, the BBC is now asking the court for alternative methods such as email or notice to the family’s lawyers. The broadcaster insists the three family members were present or involved around the January 6, 2021 speech at the heart of the lawsuit and can speak to Trump’s intentions that day.
The lawsuit itself targets a 2024 BBC Panorama documentary that spliced together portions of Trump’s speech delivered more than 50 minutes apart. The edit created the false impression that the president was urging supporters to storm the Capitol.
Trump has always maintained he called for peaceful protest. He is seeking $10 billion in damages for harm to his reputation, brand and businesses. A trial is scheduled for February 2027 in Miami.
This is the same scandal that already cost the BBC its top leadership. In late 2025, Director General Tim Davie and News CEO Deborah Turness both departed after the misleading edit became public.
Trump had warned at the time that the corporation’s “very dishonest people” had tried to interfere in an American presidential election and threatened legal action that later escalated into the current $10 billion claim.
While the Corporation fights tooth and nail in American courts to avoid accountability for its own editing practices, the UK government has been working to force social media platforms to artificially boost BBC content.
Plans outlined earlier this year would require YouTube and other giants to prioritise the state broadcaster’s output under the guise of fighting “disinformation.”
Critics have long argued that the same organisation now seeking to compel testimony from a sitting U.S. president’s children is the one British taxpayers are forced to fund and that ministers want algorithmically force-fed to the public.
Trump’s legal team frames the latest move as an attempt to muddy the waters rather than confront the original doctored footage that triggered the entire case.
The Florida court will decide whether the BBC can proceed with alternative service.
Whatever the ruling, the spectacle of a foreign state broadcaster chasing the children of the American president after being caught splicing his words reeks of desperation.
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All Trumps are grifters and they don’t like the scrutiny. Look how much money that they have all made since the grifter in chief has been in office. They sold us out to the cabal.