Trump Backs Down as BBC Lawsuits Implodes in His Face

0:00Michael Popok:Can I start by saying I am so tired of mainstream media not getting legal proceedings right, like even who the judge is that issues orders? I read a whole bunch of things that sort of proclaim that Donald Trump has won some battle in the BBC defamation case because the district court judge in Miami, Judge Altman, has blocked for now temporarily the ability to go after Donald Trump's financials and tax returns. I'm like, that's not what happened. It's not what happened at all. The way to properly interpret is Donald Trump told the American people in the world that he had a$10 billion defamation case against the BBC because they ran on some backwater channel and documentary that nobody watched, frankly, that they ran sub editing of his ellipse speech.

0:43Michael Popok:I mean, you know, his speeches, they go on forever. They couldn't show that. Who would watch that except for MAGA true believers? So they ran like a three or four minute clip of it. Oh, no, that's defamation. That makes me look like the insurrectionist that I am. And so he sues for$10 billion. But the headline shouldn't be federal judge grants emergency motion by Donald Trump as trust not to provide all these tax and financial documents. It's that Donald Trump has basically dropped the case. He's dropped the$10 billion claim. And the thing that he says is remaining in order to avoid turning over his tax returns sound familiar in his finances.

1:20Michael Popok:The stuff that he says, oh, it's my personal reputational harm. That would mean that Donald Trump would have to show that he personally did not earn 10 more billion dollars, let's say, last year than the two billion he already earned. And that loss is because of the BBC in a documentary that nobody watched. It's impossible. So the takeaway should be that you can hear my family in the background. The takeaway should be Donald Trump basically is thrown in the towel in his 10 billion dollar case against the BBC. I'm going to cover it right here on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. Let's get to it.

1:56Michael Popok:All right, let's turn to Judge Altman. He is the federal judge in the District of Miami, the Southern District of Florida, where I practice. He's actually sitting astride two cases involving Donald Trump, one involving Capital One, where Donald Trump sued because he didn't like the fact that Capital One fired his family and all 300 of their bank accounts from the bank because he said, oh, they did it because I'm woke. and diversity, equity, and inclusion and whatever else he could throw against the wall. That's not the reason. As Capital One disclosed to the world and to Judge Altman, the reason is that he, Donald Trump's transactions and the accounts and the flow of business in and out of the accounts triggered the anti-money laundering protocol in the bank and suggested that there was money laundering and or terrorist financing going on with those accounts.

2:44Michael Popok:And that's why they were debanked. That's with Judge Altman. I know Judge Altman well from my practice down there. Judge Altman also sits on top of this BBC case in which Donald Trump back in December of 2025 sued the BBC for what he said originally was$5 billion. Then it became$10 billion because he said his personal assets, his business assets, his trust assets, his real estate, his brand have all suffered. And so the BBC said, great, give us all your documents over the last two years to show how you've lost$10 billion. We don't think you can do it. I mean, we're eight months into this case, and they still haven't, on the Trump side, provided any documents to support any of their damage model.

3:25Michael Popok:I mean, you don't have to do it when you first file your case, but eight months in, I mean, come on. Well, they answered some interrogatories. They said$10 million worth of reputational damage. That's what we're relying on. Really? $10 billion worth of reputational damage for a president who made the most money in his entire life while he was president last year and brought home$2 billion, primarily in cryptocurrency. So he's going to show that he would have made$12 billion,$12 billion, sorry, except for the fact that this documentary that nobody watched about the ellipse speech, which everybody knows about, happened?

4:00Michael Popok:Come on. I mean, the major argument by the BBC is Donald Trump's reputation is in shatters and shreds and can't be defamed anyway. That given the backdrop of the Jan 6th events, the investigation by the Jan 6th Select Committee, their 600-page report, their eight days of hearings, Jack Smith's investigation, his investigation, prosecution, and indictment of Donald Trump related to D.C. election interference. How can you defame him by playing clips of his own ellipse speech? Now, we have a concept in Florida and most states, which is called defamation by implication, which means you can use somebody's words against them.

4:39Michael Popok:If you cut and paste them and you jumble them in a certain way and edit them in a certain way, maybe leaving a false impression. OK, that's that's for another fight. But you still have to show damage if you want the billions of dollars that you've required. Here's what Judge Altman. This is where mainstream media pisses me off, to be frank. I read, I won't name it, but I read a major website, you know, a social media site related to the news. And I see Judge Lett has issued an order. Okay, first of all, Judge Lett is the magistrate judge. She sits under Judge Altman. It was her order forcing Donald Trump's trust to turn over everything by subpoena that led to the emergency motion up to the district court judge, who is Judge Altman.

5:26Michael Popok:So it would have been Judge Altman's order, not Judge Letts' order. They even attached the order, even though it was signed by Altman, they still said Lett in the article. Sloppy. But listen, hopefully that's why you come here to Midas Touch and Legal AF. Before I found Noble, I never really thought about how easy it could be for someone to get into a regular zippered suitcase. Between airlines, hotels, and overhead bins, your bag is out of your sight all the time. That's why I've been loving the Noble All-in-One Carry-On. It's completely zipperless with secure latch locks that close like a safe, so when it clicks shut, you know it's locked.

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7:08Michael Popok:All right, let me read to you from Judge Altman's ruling, and then I'll tell you why this is the death knell for the case. He points to the hearing that Judge Lett, the magistrate judge that reports to him, had to say, or the hearing that she conducted. and this is on page three of his order, counsel for plaintiff who also represents the trust. That means the lawyers for Donald Trump are also representing the trust because they're too cheap to go hire another law firm to be independent. Testified at the July 27th, 2026 discovery hearing that the plaintiff no longer intends to pursue a damages theory premised on injury to the plaintiff's brands and businesses.

7:53Michael Popok:So how are they ever going to come up with the$10 billion if they're not going to rely on brand impact or business impact among his 400 companies? Quote, from the transcript, this is what Judge Altman says. Even if there has been harm to the brand, we are not pursuing that as part of our damages. That's Alejandro Brito, the lawyer for Donald Trump. Quote, so I don't want to acknowledge that the brand has or has not suffered any injury I don't want to acknowledge that the brand hasn't suffered any injury. He's basically acknowledged the brand has not suffered any injury. But I'm telling the court that I'm not going to leverage any such injury to the extent it exists as part of my damage claim.

8:30Michael Popok:It's simply the reputational injury to the president, full stop. Notice how they call Donald Trump the president again, before he was even president. And then they argue later on, oh, no, he's suing in his personal capacity. So by conceding that they're not going to be relying on damage to any of the 400 companies or brands, it is virtually impossible for them to make out$10 billion or$5 billion or even a dollar worth of damage. So this case for me is effectively over. I mean, it'll continue for another year as they try on the Trump side to extract some sort of tithe or tribute, some sort of extortion payment from the BBC, but the BBC is not falling for it.

9:11Michael Popok:In fact, on the same day that Judge Altman granted the emergency motion and said to the trust, well, hold off on producing anything until we see the new amended complaint, which will define the discovery in this case. Judge Lett, the magistrate judge, did issue an order in which she said, look, you, the BBC, are going to be able to get additional documents pursuant to your 75 subpoenas about what really went down on January 6th. and Donald Trump's mental state as a result. You're getting all that information. Not getting everything, but you're getting most of it. She then ordered the parties to get together in good faith and consult and come back to her if there is a problem.

9:54Michael Popok:That's the right thing for magistrate judges to do. Give guidance, let the parties try to work it out, and then if they can't, bring it back to her. So again, the headline here as we finish this hot take is not that the judge granted Donald Trump's emergency stay of discovery related to his trust. It's that Donald Trump has effectively shot himself in the foot related to his defamation case. He cannot continue it because he has no damages. He can just switch over and claim that he was defamed, what we call per se, and just prove a dollar in damage. That's okay. But he can't sue for the big dollar amount, which he only included in the complaint, frankly, because he wanted to historic money out of the BBC.

10:37Michael Popok:We'll continue to follow it all right here. You know I'm traveling. You can hear sometimes my family in the background. They're so loving and generous with my time, which I appreciate. But I got to continue to do what we do here, which is to keep hope alive, to give you the proper analysis without blowing smoke or sunshine on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. And hey, everybody, we're about to cross 1.2 million subscribers on Legal AF this weekend. With your help, we will get there. Slide over, hit that free subscribe button. Until my next report, I'm Michael Popak.

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