Subpoenas for Ivanka, Kushner and Don Jr. show the BBC has priced not settling

The BBC has asked a federal court in Florida for help obtaining documents and testimony from Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr. in Donald Trump's $10 billion defamation suit against the broadcaster, according to a filing made Friday ^[1][2]. With a trial provisionally set for February ^[12], a defendant chasing depositions from the plaintiff's family is a defendant building a trial record, not one shopping for an exit.

The suit was filed in December, seeking $10 billion for defamation and for deceptive and unfair trade practices ^[3]. It centres on how a 2024 documentary edited a speech Trump gave on January 6, 2021, before protesters attacked the Capitol ^[4]. The complaint alleges the BBC spliced together "two entirely separate parts" of the speech to "intentionally misrepresent" its meaning ^[5], and calls the edit "a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence" the 2024 election ^[6]. The BBC has apologised for the misleading edit while maintaining it did not defame Trump ^[7]. That combination only works if the case is tried: an apology closes the reputational file, and the denial has to be defended in court.

The discovery theory is specific. The BBC's lawyers argue the three have "personal knowledge" and are likely to hold relevant records ^[2], bearing on Trump's contention that it would be "materially false to imply that he incited violence" on January 6 ^[8]. The filing says Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump were both in the Oval Office while Trump was still revising the speech, and that Donald Trump Jr. spoke with his father directly after violence broke out at the Capitol ^[9]. In other words, the BBC is going after contemporaneous evidence of what the speech was meant to convey, from witnesses who cannot be dismissed as hostile to the plaintiff.

Service is the immediate obstacle. The BBC says it has been unable to serve the subpoenas because all three have Secret Service protection and other security personnel around them ^[10], that it asked Trump either to accept service on behalf of his daughter and son-in-law or to direct the Secret Service to permit service, and that he refused ^[11]. It is now asking the court for permission to serve by email and certified mail ^[13]. Trump's legal team says the BBC "is simply trying to distract away from their own obvious liability" and is "abusing the deposition process" to harass Trump, his family and supporters ^[14].

The other live thread matters more to the damages arithmetic. Last week Judge Roy Altman put on hold an order requiring Trump to disclose details of his business empire's financial performance, while he considers an amended complaint that would narrow the claim from damage to both business and reputation ^[15][16]. A narrower complaint means less exposure of the plaintiff's books, which raises the value to the BBC of the evidence it can get from third parties instead.

Watch three dates. Trump's team was given until Friday to respond to the service request ^[17]. Then whether Altman permits alternative service, which determines if the depositions happen at all. Then whether the amended complaint is accepted and how far it narrows the damages claim ^[16] before the provisional February trial ^[12]. Each step sets a reference price for what defending an editorial decision costs rather than settling it.