Magistrate judge Enjoliqué Lett has ordered U.S. President Donald Trump to produce the financial documents the BBC requested as part of the legal proceedings in his $10 billion defamation suit against the media outlet.

Ms Lett handed down the ruling during a three-hour discovery hearing in Miami on Tuesday.

The ruling followed a motion by the BBC’s legal team to compel the president to release the financial records of more than 400 businesses owned by him and controlled by the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust.

Last December, Mr Trump filed the defamation suit against the broadcaster over a Panorama documentary on the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Several sections of his speech were edited, and he argued that the 2024 documentary defamed him.

Ms Lett concluded that Mr Trump’s claims that the Panorama edit caused his businesses to suffer losses put his financial records at issue.

“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,” Ms Lett said at the conclusion of the hearing.

While Mr Trump can still appeal the ruling, it will compel him to disclose evidence to support his claim that his businesses suffered financial losses due to the Panorama edits.

The judge issued a split ruling in the BBC’s request for documents related to the Capitol riot, as both sides submitted records that could form evidence in the discovery process.

According to the BBC’s legal team, the corporation had released 87,000 pages of documents, while Mr Trump’s side submitted a “sham production” of only 735 pages, which they described as news articles and other materials from the internet.

Charles Tobin, the BBC’s counsel, noted that the documents Mr Trump produced only showed that the discovery process had been “entirely one-sided”.

The BBC’s request for Mr Trump’s financial records is “oppressive” and “sweeping”, said the president’s counsel, Alejandro Brito.

He also opposed the release of the president’s phone records and private schedules around the time of the riot, as well as subpoenas issued to federal agencies and former officials.

His lawyer also cited a letter the BBC chairman, Samir Shah, sent to Mr Trump last November, apologising that the documentary gave a “mistaken impression that President Trump made a direct call for violent action”.

According to Mr Brito, the letter amounted to an admission by the BBC.

The corporation contended that the documentary was not broadcast in the U.S. and asked the court to dismiss it, though the judge has yet to rule on the request.