BBC forcibly turned away trying to serve papers to Ivanka and Kushner: report

The BBC's legal team got physically blocked by police while trying to hand court papers to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner at their own Miami home.

The incident, reported by Politico, is part of an escalating fight to force President Trump's family into his $10 billion defamation suit against the British broadcaster.

BBC lawyers want to subpoena Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Kushner for both documents and deposition testimony, arguing all three have direct knowledge of Trump's intentions behind his January 6, 2021, speech at the Ellipse. Citing testimony gathered by the House January 6 Committee, the BBC claimed Trump Jr. and Ivanka were present as their father revised the speech and were with him when he delivered it, while Kushner reportedly drafted a statement condemning the violence that followed.

Trump's lawsuit claims a 2024 BBC documentary defamed him by editing together distant portions of the speech to make it sound like he'd endorsed the Capitol attack. The BBC has apologized for the edit, but insisted that doesn't amount to defamation.

When BBC attorneys attempted service at the Miami home in May, Secret Service lawyer Troy Epstein made clear the agency wouldn't accept the subpoenas on the family's behalf, writing, "The United States Secret Service, as an agency of the United States Government, is not authorized to accept service of these subpoenas for these individuals."

A separate attempt to serve Trump Jr. at Trump Tower in New York also failed. Now, with Trump's own legal team also refusing to accept the subpoenas, the BBC is asking a Miami federal court to authorize service by mail or rule that serving Trump's attorneys directly counts as sufficient.

The Trump lawsuit against BBC is already facing heavy setbacks and pitfalls, with the judge presiding over the case threatening to expose the Trump family's finances.