Donald Trump asked a Miami federal court on Wednesday to stop or sharply narrow a subpoena seeking financial records from the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit. His lawyers want U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett to set aside an order entered two weeks earlier, or limit any disclosure to specific entities, dates and financial statements.
The dispute puts a fresh spotlight on what the can force out of Trump’s private financial structure, which holds at least 400 business entities. The discovery order seeks all tax returns, property listings and other assets tied to the trust, a demand that Trump’s side says goes far beyond a defamation claim and into his complete financial affairs.
Trump filed the case last year over a documentary that used an edited portion of a speech he gave before the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the United States Capitol. He says the program was meant to influence the 2024 presidential election to his detriment. Shortly after the documentary was released, Chairman Samir Shah sent Trump an apology and said the clip was an error of judgment.
The has pushed back on both the lawsuit and the scope of the discovery fight. In March, it asked the Miami federal court to dismiss the case, arguing Trump did not suffer injury because he still won the election and that the documentary never aired in the United States, leaving the Florida court without jurisdiction. After Trump missed a deadline to dismiss the case, the filed discovery requests that Trump’s attorneys rebuffed as overbroad.
In his appeal, Alejandro Brito said the ’s motive could not be more transparent, accusing it of trying to exploit the litigation for its own political benefit and for the benefit of Trump’s other political opponents. He said the was trying to turn the matter into a sweeping investigation of Jan. 6, Trump’s political activity and the complete financial affairs of the trust and hundreds of separate entities. That leaves Lett with a narrow but consequential choice: let the press ahead into the trust’s records, or cut the request back to a more limited set of documents tied to the defamation claims.
For now, the immediate question is not whether Trump’s lawsuit survives, but how deep the is allowed to dig while it does. If the judge sides with Trump, the subpoena could be narrowed to a handful of specific records. If not, the could gain access to financial information that Trump has argued should stay outside the case entirely.
