https://washingtonsun.com/media Media en-US Thu, 03 Sep 2026 17:50:12 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/media/fox-news-business-network-media-host-maria-bartiromo Associated Press The conservative media company did not specify a reason for the separation. Thu, 03 Sep 2026 17:50:12 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/media/fox-news-business-network-media-host-maria-bartiromo Politically influential financial journalist Maria Bartiromo has departed Fox News Media after more than a decade, the company announced Thursday hours after Fox Business Network aired the final episode of the show that bears her name. The company did not specify the reasons for her separation.

“We thank Maria for her work over the last 12½ years,” a Fox statement read, “and wish her all the best on her next chapter.”

There was no immediate reaction from Bartiromo. Her X account still showed a banner photo Thursday afternoon encouraging people to “grab yourself a cup of coffee, and join us every morning for Mornings With Maria.”

Other high-profile, on-air personalities that have left Fox News Media in recent years include Tucker Carlson and Bill O’Reilly. Former Fox personality Pete Hegseth left the network in 2024 after being nominated as President Donald Trump's secretary of defense.

Bartiromo hosted “Mornings with Maria” that aired on Fox Business Network, the last episode of which aired Thursday morning, as well as “Maria Bartiromo's Wall Street.”

The first show will be renamed “Mornings with Fox Business” and will feature rotating anchors, the company said in its statement. The second will be renamed “FBN's Wall Street” and will also use rotating anchors. Additionally, her weekly Fox News show “Sunday Morning Futures” will be hosted by Jason Chaffetz for the time being.

Bartiromo has frequently earned praise from Trump, who has granted her multiple interviews over the years. He has called her a “great reporter.” Vice President JD Vance, talking with reporters Thursday afternoon, said, “I love Maria.” He said he had not talked to her and did not know the back story.

In 2025, a lawsuit against Fox News by voting technology company Smartmatic alleged that Bartiromo spread false rumors about claims of election fraud on the air — a notion she had vehemently rejected.

Bartiromo had said before an earlier lawsuit involving Fox and Dominion Voting Systems that it’s “absurd” to think that she personally lobbied former Attorney General William Barr to aggressively investigate Trump’s charges of voter fraud during the 2020 election. Instead, she said she was doing a journalist’s job in asking follow-up questions. That case was settled in 2023.

Before Fox, Bartiromo worked for CNBC for 20 years as a financial journalist. Previously to that, she worked for CNN. At CNBC, she pioneered daily live reporting from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and won an Emmy Award for a documentary about Google.]]> https://washingtonsun.com/media/dhs-deports-far-right-provocateur-milo-yiannapoulos Marissa Martinez The British national was detained this week in New Orleans. Sat, 29 Aug 2026 18:27:43 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/media/dhs-deports-far-right-provocateur-milo-yiannapoulos Far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos has been deported back to the United Kingdom after immigration agents detained him in New Orleans on Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed on Saturday.

Yiannopoulos was deported the day after he was reported to be in custody. The former Kanye West spokesperson and Marjorie Taylor Greene congressional intern entered the country legally in 2019 but “chose to overstay his welcome in violation of our nation’s laws,” a DHS spokesperson said Friday. A judge had ordered Yiannopoulos to be removed on July 22 after he failed to appear in immigration court, according to the agency.

Yiannopoulos is from the United Kingdom and has been an outspoken supporter of mass deportations and Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdowns.

“Being in detention is a choice,” the agency posted on Friday alongside a photo of Yiannopoulos.]]> https://washingtonsun.com/media/stanley-druckenmillers-wsj-op-ed-bessent-ai Jeff Stein “I write everything using AI now,” Druckenmiller, who questioned the treasury secretary’s bond market interventions, said. Tue, 25 Aug 2026 14:52:21 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/media/stanley-druckenmillers-wsj-op-ed-bessent-ai A billionaire acknowledged on Tuesday that his widely read opinion column in The Wall Street Journal criticizing Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s bond market intervention was written using artificial intelligence.

Stanley Druckenmiller, a former hedge fund manager who founded Duquesne Capital, published “Let the Bond Market Speak” on Monday, questioning Bessent’s interventions to hold down yields on U.S. treasuries. The article drew added attention because Druckenmiller worked with Bessent under George Soros, and is sometimes described as a “mentor” to the treasury secretary.

Pangram, an AI detection tool, found that Druckenmiller’s op-ed had been written using artificial intelligence, according to multiple social media posts. In an interview with NOTUS, Druckenmiller said “of course I used AI” when writing the column, and argued he didn’t see a problem with doing so.

"There's a reason I moved from an English major to being an economics major," Druckenmiller said. "I'm not embarrassed by it … I write everything using AI now for the same reason I use a calculator when I do math problems.”

In a statement, Paul Gigot, the editorial page editor for The Wall Street Journal, defended Druckenmiller.

“AI is a fact of modern life. People will use it to assist in their work and their writing, including with research, checking grammar, editing and more,” Gigot said. “The question for us is whether what we publish from contributors reflects an author’s original argument, and if the author has the standing and credibility to make it. In Stan Druckenmiller’s case, we have had a relationship with him for many years, and nobody can doubt that his op-ed is his genuine opinion.”

The use of AI by economists and other experts in writing opinion pieces has gained renewed scrutiny as the tool has become more widely used.

Earlier this month, Harvard professor Ricardo Hausmann published a column in the Financial Times about Trump's tariff regime. The column appeared laced with AI-inflected language, and the Financial Times later appended a note saying: "It has come to our attention that AI was used to condense a longer draft of this column prior to submission to the FT and our own editorial involvement. The FT editorial code of conduct specifically prohibits the use of AI in the writing process."

Druckenmiller’s op-ed also included numerous phrases that sound like writing generated by AI, including: “There is a quieter cost, too” and “This wasn’t liquidity management, it was price management.”

A Pangram test posted on social media by the economist Claudia Sahm found that "100 percent of this text is AI.” Druckenmiller denied that “the whole thing” was written with AI and said that he rejected many of the AI’s suggestions during the writing process.

Some media experts have expressed concern about the proliferation of the tool. Chris Roberts, an associate professor at the University of Alabama specializing in journalism ethics, said “using AI raises questions about how much time and thought actually went into the piece.”

“We see a ton of this. We’re going to see more of this,” Roberts said. “Any time you take humans out of the process of communicating to other humans there can be blowback when the words or the intent is wrong, or it doesn’t sound like a human.”

Druckenmiller dismissed the use of the tool as unimportant because the op-ed reflected his intended meaning.

“I don’t know why this is relevant,” Druckenmiller said. “My name is on the piece. It’s my message.”]]> https://washingtonsun.com/defense/pentagon-defense-department-fires-editor-publisher-stars-and-stripes-military-newspaper Torrie Herrington, Angie Orellana Hernandez The publication’s editor in chief told NOTUS that he was let go at least partially because of a “CBS Sunday Morning” story that he recently appeared in. Fri, 21 Aug 2026 21:53:12 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/defense/pentagon-defense-department-fires-editor-publisher-stars-and-stripes-military-newspaper The Pentagon on Friday purged the leadership of military newspaper Stars and Stripes, which has been at odds with Defense Department brass since President Donald Trump returned to office last year.

Max Lederer, publisher of Stars and Stripes, as well as the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Erik Slavin, and a reporter, Lara Korte, were all fired on Friday for insubordination.

The publication is partially funded by the federal government but operates independently from Pentagon leadership.

Slavin told NOTUS he was let go at least partially because of a “CBS Sunday Morning” story about Stars and Stripes that he recently appeared in.

“According to the notice, I am being fired for stating in a CBS interview that hypothetical censorship of news for service members would constitute a personal red line,” Slavin said in a statement. “The Pentagon’s public affairs office has charged me with insubordination. I stand by the principle that Stars and Stripes must remain editorially independent, as required by law and by the department’s own policies.”

The Department of Defense declined to comment on the situation, but a Pentagon official confirmed to NOTUS that the separation notices were issued.

Korte, who covered the Middle East for the paper and was also featured in the July “Sunday Morning” story, also said she received notice that she was being fired on Friday, connecting the incident to her appearance on the network.

In that story, she said: “I'm working for Stars and Stripes. Not for the Pentagon, not for any administration, not for any policymaker. I’m here to cover the military community.”
Stars and Stripes AP - 26015712020023 (2000x1564, AR: 1.28)Lederer, who served as publisher for 19 years, had already announced his retirement Tuesday in a memo to the news organization’s staff, saying that his “understanding of the value and mission of Stars and Stripes” contrasted in “fundamental ways” with Pentagon leadership’s vision.

Lederer’s announcement led a trio of Democratic senators to voice their concerns over the Pentagon’s oversight of Stars and Stripes. In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire) revealed that the Department of Defense had assigned an active-duty public affairs officer to serve as Lederer’s deputy — reportedly without consultation with the newspaper’s leadership.

The Associated Press reported that it’s unclear if that active-duty public affairs officer, Navy Capt. William Urban, would become the new publisher.

Blumenthal lashed out at Pentagon leadership Friday after news of the firings broke, telling NOTUS in a statement: “These firings are political interference and intimidation. This shameless censorship will only continues to erode veteran and servicemember credibility and trust in the newspaper, whose independence is essential.”

He added that he planned to call for Senate Armed Services Committee hearings on the matter and push for changes as part of the annual National Defense Authorization Act.

On Friday, Urban released an open letter on the Stars and Stripes website, telling the paper’s stakeholders that he is “mentally committed” to ending his time as a spokesperson for the Navy in order to help run the editorially independent publication.

“This may be difficult for some to understand, but I have had to adapt to changing assignments and roles through more than 30 years of service. This is certainly one of my most significant adaptations, but one that I am fully capable of making,” he wrote.

In April, the Pentagon also fired Jacqueline Smith, whose job as ombudsman had been to ensure the paper’s editorial independence.

The newspaper itself has been a focus for the department’s top officials.

In January, Hegseth’s spokesperson Sean Parnell said Stars and Stripes was “woke” but will be returning to “its original mission.”

“We will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale, and adapt it to serve a new generation of service members,” Parnell said on X.

“Stars & Stripes will be custom tailored to our warfighters. It will focus on warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability, and ALL THINGS MILITARY. No more repurposed DC gossip columns; no more Associated Press reprints,” he said.]]> https://washingtonsun.com/congress/military-stars-stripes-newspaper-pentagon-hegseth Angie Orellana Hernandez A trio of Democratic senators said they were recently informed the Pentagon unilaterally changed a senior leadership position. Thu, 20 Aug 2026 17:31:38 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/congress/military-stars-stripes-newspaper-pentagon-hegseth A trio of Democratic senators voiced concerns Thursday over the Pentagon’s controversial oversight of Stars and Stripes, a military newspaper partially funded by the federal government, after clashes over the publication’s editorial independence and its longtime publisher’s abrupt retirement announcement this week.

Max Lederer, who served as publisher for 19 years, announced his retirement Tuesday in a memo to the news organization’s staff, saying that his “understanding of the value and mission of Stars and Stripes” contrasted in “fundamental ways” from Pentagon leadership’s vision. He elaborated in an interview with Stars and Stripes on Wednesday that he particularly opposed the Pentagon’s plans to shift the outlet to a digital-only format.

Lederer’s announcement is the latest development in a string of turmoil that has engulfed the storied publication, which was originally created during the Civil War and revived during World War I.

Pentagon leadership under the Trump administration canceled the use of news wire services such as The Associated Press and Reuters. They also banned cartoons and other syndicated content. The publication’s ombudsman, Jacqueline Smith, was fired in April after calling the changes an infringement of Stars and Stripes’ editorial independence in an op-ed.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire) said they were recently informed that the Department of Defense had assigned an active-duty public affairs officer to serve as deputy for Lederer, reportedly without consultation.

The leadership change, they added, would further erode the publication’s credibility. They requested answers by Aug. 28 as to who appointed the public affairs officer to the position, what the officer’s duties would entail and what safeguards would be put in place to ensure there would be no interference by the Pentagon with the publication’s editorial decisions.

“For generations, American servicemembers, particularly those stationed overseas and in combat zones, have relied on Stars and Stripes for credible and independent news,” the letter read. “That trust depends on preserving a clear separation between independent journalism and the Department’s public affairs apparatus. At this critical moment of leadership transition, that independence must not be compromised.”

On Thursday, CBS News reported that the Pentagon was considering firing Lederer prior to his scheduled retirement.

The Defense Department did not immediately return a request for comment on the lawmakers’ letter, whether it was considering firing Lederer or on the decision-making behind his retirement.

Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell said in January that Stars and Stripes was returning to “its original mission.”

“We are bringing Stars & Stripes into the 21st century,” Parnell wrote. “We will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale, and adapt it to serve a new generation of service members.”]]> https://washingtonsun.com/trump-white-house/sean-duffy-reality-tv-great-american-road-trip-release Jenna Monnin Critics have called for an investigation into “The Great American Road Trip,” which was first set to be released months ago. Wed, 19 Aug 2026 17:23:09 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/trump-white-house/sean-duffy-reality-tv-great-american-road-trip-release Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy released the first episode of his reality-TV-themed road trip series “The Great American Road Trip” on Wednesday, months after Duffy said it would premiere.

Duffy framed the series as his family’s way of celebrating America’s 250th birthday, but the production has sparked a number of ethical questions in recent months.

A disclaimer at the beginning of the episode says the program “is a result of an agreement between the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Great American Road Trip, Inc. Production costs — including filming, crew, food, fuel, lodging and activities — were paid for by the Great American Road Trip, Inc and accepted as a gift by the Department."

“No taxpayer dollars were spent for the participation of Secretary Duffy’s family,” the disclaimer added.

Duffy and his wife, “Fox & Friends Weekend” host Rachel Campos-Duffy, took their kids to visit Philadelphia for the inaugural episode of the series. The family kicked off their trip after visiting President Donald Trump at the White House.

“Our capital is Washington, D.C., but it all began in Philadelphia,” Campos-Duffy said.

Michael Alfonso, the 26-year-old son-in-law of the secretary, also joined the family during the episode. Alfonso won the Republican nomination last week for Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District.

The family met up with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum for their first stop at Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell.

“You’re going to be stopping at a bunch of Department of the Interior sites across the country,” Burgum said to the Duffy family.

After the Liberty Bell, the family visited Independence Hall, the National Constitution Center and the Philadelphia Museum of Art — running up the same steps Sylvester Stallone traversed in the iconic “Rocky” scene. The Duffy family also spoke with an actor impersonating founding father Ben Franklin and another playing Betsy Ross, who is credited for designing the first American flag.

The disclaimer at the end of the episode states the “production was made possible by the generous support of our GART, Inc sponsors.” GART stands for Great American Road Trip.

Controversy has swirled around the series since it was announced earlier this year. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington urged the Transportation Department’s inspector general to launch a probe into Duffy’s participation in the series. Some of GART’s sponsors include some companies that the department is tasked with regulating, like aerospace company Boeing and auto manufacturer Toyota.

Five Democratic senators in June also requested for the DOT inspector general to investigate Duffy’s ties to the show.

“We are concerned with this potential mix between personal and professional activities. If the road trip was personal, then it appears a Cabinet official spent several days over multiple months taking and filming a road trip that should have been paid for by the Secretary, but instead the Secretary accepted gas, lodging, and other travel expenses from a non-profit funded by the very companies the Secretary regulates,” the senators wrote in a press release at the time.]]> https://washingtonsun.com/media/abc-lawsuit-fcc-first-amendment Jackie Llanos The company said the FCC has threatened its broadcast licenses in violation of the First Amendment. Tue, 18 Aug 2026 16:09:10 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/media/abc-lawsuit-fcc-first-amendment ABC filed a lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday, accusing it of punishing television stations for content President Donald Trump dislikes.

FCC Chair Brendan Carr has threatened ABC’s broadcast licenses and investigated its workplace diversity practices, as well as Democratic Texas senatorial candidate James Talarico’s appearance on “The View.” The complaint contends these moves amount to First Amendment violations.

“The Administration has waged a retaliatory campaign against ABC for a single reason: it disapproves of what ABC broadcasts,” the company’s attorneys wrote in the court filing. “That campaign began in this Administration’s earliest days and has only intensified since.”

ABC is seeking emergency intervention from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to stop the FCC from demanding early renewal for eight of the company’s television stations. None of the licenses was set to expire before 2028, but Carr demanded they file renewals this year. The FCC had not called for early renewals for more than 50 years, according to the complaint.

A spokesperson for the commission said Disney, ABC’s parent company, was engaging in a campaign of disinformation and that the FCC would continue to follow the facts.

The lawsuit highlights Trump’s repeated demands that ABC be stripped of its licenses, including during his July 16 primetime address that ABC didn’t air on broadcast but livestreamed digitally.

“In a rare move, NBC and ABC fake news have both said that they would not cover this speech. They knew what it was about,” Trump said. “They and others in the media are part of a plot. They want to continue this fraud for whatever reason. … You can't have a great country without free and fair elections. Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses.”

Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s on-air comments also triggered the FCC’s moves to shape the company’s content, ABC’s lawsuit states. The order to file the license renewals came the day after Trump called for ABC to fire Kimmel for his pre-White House Correspondents Dinner joke referring to first lady Melania Trump as having “a glow like an expectant widow.”

The timing was not related to the president’s comments, Carr said in a Politico interview.

Last year, Carr’s threat to take action against ABC following Kimmel’s remarks on the assasination of Charlie Kirk prompted the company to pull his show for several days.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said at the time during a podcast interview with right-wing political commentator Benny Johnson. “These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
]]> https://washingtonsun.com/florida/attorney-general-state-pension-new-york-times Manuela Silva James Uthmeier is claiming that the Florida retirement fund’s investment in the Times allows it to request internal documents and push for editorial changes. Tue, 11 Aug 2026 18:13:09 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/florida/attorney-general-state-pension-new-york-times Florida’s Republican attorney general is employing a novel strategy in an attempt to prove “editorial malpractice” at The New York Times — seeking to use his control over the state’s pension fund, which invests in the media company, to compel the release of private documents that he claims will prove the company faces substantial harm due to bias.

James Uthmeier, Florida’s top law enforcement officer, sent a 28-page letter to the Times on Monday requesting internal documents related to the newspaper’s board of directors.

Uthmeier gave the board two weeks to respond, and threatened to file suit if it does not answer.

This is at least the third letter the Times has received this year regarding potential lawsuits from shareholders demanding it turn over records related to its coverage, but the first from a sitting government official.

Uthmeier lists four instances where he says the media company used an “interested or unnamed source” to publish a claim without independent verification, and later had to issue a correction.

They include the scandal around a 2020 podcast called “Caliphate,” where the central source was found to have lied and was later charged by Canadian authorities. The Times launched an internal investigation and called the incident an "institutional failing.”

Uthmeier also cited a correction the newspaper issued regarding the cause of death of a U.S. Capitol Police officer during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot; an editor's note issued on a story that said it “relied too heavily on claims made by Hamas”; and an opinion piece by Nicholas Kristof on the alleged rape of Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokesperson for The New York Times, told NOTUS in a statement that the letter “is a clear attempt to chill First Amendment-protected journalism.”

As part of his role as Florida’s attorney general, Uthmeier serves as legal counsel for the State Board of Administration, which manages the state’s public pension funds. Those accounts own a collective 160,000 shares of NYT stock.

Uthmeier is seeking to use that influence to demand six years of internal board documents. He says that although the First Amendment protects speech, the company cannot ignore the demands of its shareholders.

In his letter, Uthmeier states that his investigation is “grounded in concrete corporate risk,” as opposed to “general dissatisfaction with editorial judgement.” He alleges that there are documented instances of the media company inadequately applying editorial standards to stories in its opinion section, and that his duty to oversee Florida’s public-sector pension program gives him the right to investigate.

Uthmeier takes particular issue with a piece that ran in the Times’ opinion section, headlined “The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians,” which claimed in part that Israeli soldiers had committed assaults against Palestinian prisoners — including the use of dogs to commit rape. The piece prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to threaten a lawsuit that has not yet been filed.

In his demand letter, Uthmeier asks for records detailing conversations with the board of directors regarding that opinion piece, as well as others. In his letter, he said that he was not asking the Times’ to “change news coverage or retract an article,” instead claiming that he was simply overseeing a risky investment.

“What matters here is that a host of red flags, presumably shown to the Board, establish that the Company suffers from biased reporting practices that threaten, in the Board’s own words, the Company’s ‘key assets’: its ‘brand’ and ‘reputation,’” Uthmeier wrote.]]> https://washingtonsun.com/courts/judge-trump-amend-refile-15-billion-new-york-times-defamation-lawsuit Angie Orellana Hernandez An amended complaint must be filed by Aug. 27. Tue, 28 Jul 2026 15:48:58 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/courts/judge-trump-amend-refile-15-billion-new-york-times-defamation-lawsuit A federal judge in Florida is allowing President Donald Trump to amend and refile his $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times after the publication moved to toss the case on First Amendment grounds.

The amended complaint must be filed by Aug. 27, United States District Judge Steven D. Merryday ruled Monday. Merryday, who was appointed by former President George H. W. Bush, postponed a ruling on the Times’ motion to dismiss the case.

Trump’s legal team sued the Times in September 2025, claiming that three articles and a book written by Times’ journalists contained “repugnant distortions and fabrications about President Trump.” The complaint argued that the book and articles, which were published ahead of the 2024 election, sought to maliciously harm Trump’s “worldwide reputation for success.”

Trump and Trump-backed organizations have continually sued — and lost — defamation cases against news publications. In April, a federal judge tossed Trump’s defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal after it reported that a sexually suggestive letter with the president’s signature had been gifted to disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

And in July, a separate federal judge in Florida dismissed a $3.8 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Trump Media, the parent company of Truth Social, against The Washington Post over an article about a mysterious financial entity’s connection to the Trump-owned social media platform.

The Times, which has been repeatedly sued by Trump, argued that Merryday should either dismiss the case or have it transferred to the Southern District of New York. After Merryday denied the newspaper’s motion to move the case, Trump celebrated on Truth Social.

Lawyers for both parties delivered oral arguments for more than two hours on July 22. Merryday’s ruling on Monday did not indicate what parts of Trump’s original complaint could be amended.

Trump’s legal team had proactively requested for Merryday to grant them an amended complaint that would “cure any … deficiencies” and show evidence of how “the Challenged Statements are not substantially true, along with additional facts and innuendo by Defendants to show why the Challenged Statements are defamatory, and additional evidence of actual malice for each Defendant.”

The Times will have 21 days to file a response after the amended complaint is submitted, Merryday said.]]> https://washingtonsun.com/donald-trump/trump-bbc-documentary-lawsuit-financial-information Raymond Fernández It’s still unclear whether the president’s legal team will appeal the decision. Wed, 22 Jul 2026 15:07:41 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/donald-trump/trump-bbc-documentary-lawsuit-financial-information A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that President Donald Trump must turn over his financial information to substantiate claims made in a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett of Florida determined that to justify Trump attorneys’ complaint that the president endured “overwhelming financial and reputational harm” due to a BBC documentary titled “Trump: A Second Chance?,” the president must provide a detailed account of his financial information.

Trump’s attorneys put financial and reputational consequences at the core of the original lawsuit.

The attorneys have since moved to narrow the case to reputational damages alone. But the federal judge on Tuesday rejected the claims.

“All of President Trump's brand, properties and businesses are impugned or said to have been impugned. Reputational, economic damages, all of that is now at issue in this case,” the federal judge argued, according to Politico. 

It’s still unclear whether Trump’s attorneys plan to appeal the ruling. The president claims that the documentary, which aired days before the 2024 presidential election, was deceptively edited and implies the president incited the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Even though the BBC apologized to Trump for “the manner in which the video clip was edited,” the British news organization insisted its documentary did not defame the president.

The media company has since doubled down on its defense.

In a Wednesday filing, the company requested access to witnesses and documents from Special Counsel Jack Smith's criminal investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, arguing the president could not demonstrate defamation without the counsel’s review of all communications between the president and his advisors “during the three-hour period between his Ellipse speech and his message calling on the rioters to disperse.”

They argue that despite Trump’s repeated claim of executive privilege — even during the current lawsuit — the courts have rejected it in the past.

During his second term, Trump has sued multiple news outlets for billions of dollars, including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He’s also received more than $30 million in settlements with ABC News and CBS News.]]>