President Donald Trump's own words could come back to haunt him — and his children and son-in-law.
Salon's Sophia Tesfaye discussed how the president's BBC lawsuit could reveal more information about his statements on Jan. 6, 2021, and his family's connection to the events that day. It's tied to the question around Trump's statement and what he meant when he told a crowd "fight like hell" before a group of insurrectionists attacked the U.S. Capitol.
But Trump might not have realized his previous legal strategy would backfire, Tesfaye argued.
"He miscalculated badly," Tesfaye wrote. "As a public service corporation, the BBC operates under a royal charter that explicitly bars it from entering into out-of-court financial settlements to make litigation disappear. It cannot cut a check to sweep away Trump’s claims. The corporation is legally bound to fight until a verdict is reached — or until Trump himself gives up. And its defense team, anchored by the First Amendment firm Ballard Spahr, has used that obligation to go straight at the people closest to Trump on Jan. 6."
Although Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner have dodged BBC subpoenas from behind their Miami compound, using the Secret Service to block the network, Tesfaye explained. That could delay the process, but it can't stop the lawsuit Trump started, which his children will eventually have to face.
"And if the case proceeds, they may have to say so under oath," Tesfaye wrote.
"Trump’s own conduct made this exposure worse," Tesfaye added. "The BBC also sought his financial records to test the legitimacy of the massive damages he claimed to have suffered — a maneuver that prompted him to quietly abandon his monetary claims rather than open his ledgers to public scrutiny. His lawyers had previously dismissed the request as a 'fishing expedition.' But this is how discovery works: If you claim a broadcast inflicted extraordinary economic harm, the defendant gets to test that claim. Trump built the case that now threatens to expose his own children and son-in-law, and he built it because he assumed no one would ever call his bluff."