It is hilarious on its face that the president is suing the BBC, charging that The Beeb defamed him in 2024 in a documentary about the January 6, 2021 insurrection. The president claims that he was defamed by the documentary in that it barbered his rabble-rousing on the Mall preceding the insurrection so as to emphasize his role in rousing the rabble. He is suing for ... drops into Dr. Evil voice ... 10 billlllllion dollars.
Hilarious, I tells ya.
But, according to The New Republic (via MSN), there's more comedy to come. The BBC announced its intention to call former special counsel Jack Smith as a witness on its behalf. This, of course, sent the president's lawyers into DefCon 1, and their counter-argument is an absolute laugh-riot.
The BBC has subpoenaed Smith to defend itself from Trump’s accusations that the network defamed him with deceptive editing in a 2024 documentary about the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection. In a court filing Friday, Trump’s lawyers tried to fight the subpoena by claiming that “Smith lacks any personal knowledge regarding the issues in this matter."
Stop it, you scamps. You're killing me over here.
“He was not present when President Trump’s January 6, 2021, speech (the ‘Speech’) was made, nor did he participate in its preparation. Smith does not have any personal knowledge regarding President Trump’s state of mind at the time the Speech was given. Any evidence that Smith gathered during his investigation consists of secondhand knowledge based on materials that he and other third parties collected from various sources,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in their complaint.
Not for nothing, but if anyone knows the president's weird, conniving predator's mind, it's Jack Smith.
In response, the BBC’s attorneys wrote that “None of [Trump]’s arguments for blocking the deposition of Mr. Smith can withstand scrutiny,” pointing out that Smith himself doesn’t object to testifying in the deposition and that Trump still has to prove that “he did not foment or incite the January 6 Capitol riot,” as he claims the BBC’s documentary falsely implied. “No one forced Plaintiff to file this lawsuit and to dispute that his speech on January 6 incited the violence that followed at the Capitol. But as long as he chooses to maintain the case, he cannot commit the fundamental injustice of preventing the BBC from obtaining the evidence it needs to robustly defend itself on every element of his claim, including Plaintiff’s burden to prove falsity,” the BBC’s lawyers wrote.
The president's side also is resisting any attempt to have him or any of his spalpeens testify, as well as any attempt by the defense to explore his finances. History indicates that The Beeb probably has better lawyers than the former client of Alina Habba and Todd Blanche, the latter of whom lost on 34 felony counts. My money is on this comedy extravaganza closing long before it comes to trial.