A US court has granted Donald Trump a reprieve, allowing his investment trust to delay the release of financial records in his $10bn defamation lawsuit against the BBC. Trump's trust had argued that the BBC's request for financial performance details was "shockingly broad" and politically motivated.

Initially, Trump claimed a BBC Panorama documentary about the 2021 US Capitol riots damaged his brand, properties, and business interests. The BBC sought financial information to assess this impact, and Trump's Revocable Trust was due to produce documents this week. However, Trump's lawyers sought to amend the complaint, focusing the lawsuit on reputational harm rather than financial damages.

The BBC opposed the delay, calling it a "transparent effort to avoid the imminent court-ordered deadline." Nevertheless, a judge agreed with Trump's lawyers, granting a brief stay on the discovery order until the request to amend the complaint is resolved. This ruling is a setback for the BBC, which had hoped to begin assessing the lawsuit's merits.