BBC demands Trump hand over personal text messages in bid to prove he incited Jan 6 riots

2026-07-24 22:37 UTC

The BBC has demanded that Donald Trump hand over his personal text messages in a £10bn (£7.5bn) defamation lawsuit over his alleged involvement in the January 6 riots in Washington. The broadcaster’s lawyers are seeking to prove in court that the US president should be held responsible for encouraging his supporters to storm the US Capitol following his 2020 election defeat. In their legal document, the BBC said: “In [his] lawsuit, President Trump claims that the BBC defamed him by editing his speech at the White House Ellipse on January 6, 2021 in a manner that he claims conveyed the allegedly false implication that he fomented the violence that followed at the Capitol. “Thus, as the BBC explained and the government does not dispute, President Trump cannot prevail in his case if he cannot establish the falsity of that alleged implication.”

Replies (6)

@homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 2026-07-24 22:58

Trump: 🥹👉👈

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@BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world 2026-07-25 03:49

BBC brought it upon themselves. After they maliciously redacted his speech, got sued and now they have to weasel out of this somehow.

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@HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 2026-07-25 04:02

How does one “hand over” “personal” text messages? Aren’t all texts “personal”? And do people keep them on something else than their phone? Or does someone like POTUS have a special phone with forensic-level text message backups?

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@BeUnique@lemmy.zip 2026-07-24 23:19

Calling it now! He changed his cell phone plan just like the secret service did right at the most convenient time ever wiping all messages.

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@Nomad@infosec.pub 2026-07-25 04:04

Won’t work and they know it. Trump likely never put out anything concrete that lead to this. Like Hitler he just implied what he would like to happen and his underlings delivered. And in a multi level boot licking contest this escalates very quickly through the levels downwards. So the killings start on the foot soldier levels like ice. Hitler very likely never explicitly ordered the factory killings in the concentration camps. He just implied he would like the Jews gone and never asked too specifically where they were are vanishing to.

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@quick_snail@feddit.nl 2026-07-25 13:54

Who even saves messages for years?

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