BBC wants to subpoena Jack Smith – Trump fights back against testimony

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents BBC wants to subpoena Jack Smith – Trump fights back against testimony.

The BBC is bringing in a prominent witness in its dispute with U.S. President Donald Trump: attorneys for the British broadcaster have filed a motion with a federal court to subpoena former special counsel Jack Smith. This is reported by the industry portal Deadline, citing court documents filed on Monday in Florida. Smith himself reportedly raises no objections to the subpoena.

Smith was co-responsible during the Biden era for the federal conspiracy charge related to the 2020 U.S. election against Trump. According to Law & Crime, the BBC broadcast at the center of the legal dispute involves twelve seconds of footage in a documentary about January 6, 2021. Trump accuses the broadcaster of falsely portraying him as an instigator of the Capitol riot through an edit of his January 6, 2021 speech – and is demanding ten billion dollars in damages.

According to Yahoo News and New Republic, Trump is resisting Smith's testimony. The BBC argues, by contrast, that Smith can provide insight into Trump's "state of mind" at the relevant time – a central point of contention in the ongoing discovery phase. According to the Guardian, the broadcaster has simultaneously filed a motion to question Trump himself under oath.

Why Smith could become a key witness

Smith spent months gathering evidence on the preparation and conduct of Trump before and on January 6, 2021. It is precisely this documentation that the plaintiffs in the BBC case are relying on. If Smith testifies, BBC attorneys gain direct access to investigative files that would otherwise remain sealed. Trump's team wants to prevent that by all means – according to New Republic, observers are already speaking of a "heated discovery battle."

What this means for the trial

The pretrial phase is often considered decisive in U.S. defamation cases: whoever secures material here sets the tone before the jury. If the BBC succeeds in questioning Smith, the pressure mounts on Trump's attorneys to produce their own evidence regarding the January 6 speech. Alternet assesses the BBC's move as a "new setback" for Trump. The broadcaster had previously submitted a third request to have records from Smith's investigations released.

The motions were filed with the relevant federal court in Florida, where Trump had placed the lawsuit during the 2024 election year. A decision on the subpoena is still pending.