A federal judge on Monday, July 28th, 2026, ordered former President Donald Trump to turn over financial documents from his Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust to the BBC. The order supports BBC’s subpoena as part of a defamation lawsuit concerning a controversial edit in a BBC Panorama documentary.

Judge Enjoliqué Aytch Lett granted the subpoena but limited its temporal scope, requiring documentation from January 1, 2023, to the present. This timeframe aims to help the defendant assess the plaintiff’s financial position immediately before and after the documentary’s publication.

The lawsuit stems from a November 2025 BBC Panorama episode titled "Trump: A Second Chance?" in which the network apologized for editing together three separate portions of a Trump speech to create the false impression that he encouraged a violent attack on the Capitol. In a retraction, the BBC acknowledged the mistake but refused to issue a payout for the error. The controversy led to the resignation of BBC’s Director-General Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness.

Trump’s legal team has argued for expert testimony to support claims for damages totaling $10 billion.

Judge Lett noted in his order, “The Court does, however, agree with the Trust that the Subpoena’s requests are overbroad as to the temporal scope and need to be limited.”

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