{"id":189563,"date":"2026-08-15T04:01:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T04:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/189563\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T04:01:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T04:01:17","slug":"bbc-blocked-multiple-times-from-serving-trump-family-members-in-defamation-suit-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/189563\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC blocked multiple times from serving Trump family members in defamation suit \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The BBC has failed multiple times to serve Donald Trump\u2019s family members with legal orders in the US President\u2019s defamation case against the broadcaster.<\/p>\n

The US president is seeking 10 billion dollars (\u00a37.5 billion) in a Florida court over the editing of a Panorama documentary from 2024 about the US Capitol riots.<\/p>\n

Although the BBC had previously apologised for an \u201cerror of judgment\u201d and accepted the editing of the programme gave \u201cthe impression of a direct call for violent action\u201d, the broadcaster is seeking to have the case thrown out.<\/p>\n

The national broadcaster has been attempting to subpoena Mr Trump\u2019s son, Donald Trump Jr; his daughter, Ivanka Trump; and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to require them to give evidence, however, multiple efforts have failed so far.<\/p>\n

\"Jason<\/a>\"New<\/a>\"TheThe BBC is seeking court assistance to subpoena members of President Donald Trump\u2019s family (Manuel Balce Ceneta\/PA) <\/p>\n

According to documents filed in the United States District Court in Florida on Friday, the BBC claims the three family members \u201chave personal knowledge and likely have possession, custody, or control of records relevant to multiple elements of Plaintiff\u2019s claims against the BBC\u201d.<\/p>\n

But attempts to serve them with subpoenas have so far been unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

The BBC has said this is due to the fact that the trio are protected by the United States Secret Service as members of the sitting president\u2019s immediate family.<\/p>\n

Although the BBC has said it has \u201cendeavoured to resolve the issue\u201d without seeking the Court\u2019s assistance, it now requires an alternative way to serve the documents.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe BBC has been attempting to serve papers to Donald Trump Jnr (Andrew Milligan\/PA) <\/p>\n

While it has claimed to have asked Mr Trump to accept service on behalf of his family members \u2013 he allegedly \u201crefused\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also \u201crefused\u201d requests to direct the Secret Service to accept the documents.<\/p>\n

The document also detailed how law enforcement officers also \u201cprevented\u201d the BBC\u2019s process server from serving the president\u2019s daughter and her husband at their home in Florida and instead directed the BBC to co-ordinate service through the US Secret Service.<\/p>\n

But the BBC said attempts to have the Secret Service accept the documents and pass them on have also been refused, with the federal law enforcement agency saying it is \u201cnot authorised to accept service of the subpoenas\u201d.<\/p>\n

An attempt to serve Mr Trump Jr at Trump Tower in New York was also \u201cstopped\u201d by security at the building.<\/p>\n

The constant security cordons surrounding the family have also left the BBC saying it would also \u201cprevent any future attempts\u201d to serve the papers.<\/p>\n

\"LawLaw enforcement officers allegedly \u2018prevented\u2019 access to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump (Stefan Rousseau) (Stefan Rousseau\/PA) <\/p>\n

It has also called its attempts to serve the subpoenas \u201cunusual, perhaps even novel\u201d, but called the solution \u201cstraightforward\u201d.<\/p>\n

The organisation is now requesting the Court\u2019s help to serve the subpoenas \u201cvia any alternative methods\u201d suggested by the Court.<\/p>\n

It has also suggested methods including authorising service by email, mail and notice to the witnesses\u2019 lawyers.<\/p>\n

In suing the BBC, Mr Trump originally alleged the Panorama episode, broadcast shortly before the 2024 presidential election he won, had caused him both reputational and financial injury.<\/p>\n

\"BBCBBC chairman Samir Shah previously apologised on behalf of the broadcaster (Danny Lawson\/PA) <\/p>\n

The documentary has faced criticism for giving the impression Mr Trump had encouraged his supporters to storm the Capitol building on January 6 2021 after he lost the election to Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

The allegations led the then-BBC director-general Tim Davie to announce his resignation.<\/p>\n

BBC chairman Samir Shah apologised on behalf of the broadcaster and accepted the editing of the programme \u201cgave the impression of a direct call for violent action\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, the broadcaster is seeking to have the case thrown out, warning of the \u201cchilling effect\u201d it would have on \u201crobust reporting on public figures and events\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The BBC has failed multiple times to serve Donald Trump\u2019s family members with legal orders in the US…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[16916,12,105,1072,74,271],"class_list":["post-189563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ivanka-trump","tag-bbc","tag-donald-trump","tag-ivanka-trump","tag-media","tag-trump","tag-uk"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/117097535058253570","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}