The Justice Department has refused to give former special counsel Jack Smith permission to testify in President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC.
The broadcaster wants to question Smith about evidence he gathered while investigating Trump’s efforts to contest the 2020 election, but in a letter filed Monday night, the Justice Department said that could expose grand jury secrets and classified information, and argued Smith’s knowledge of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was “secondhand.”
“Any purported ‘need’ for such second-hand knowledge cannot outweigh the Department’s significant interest in preserving the confidentiality of materials subject to law enforcement privilege and executive privilege,” Justice Department lawyer Pardis Gheibi wrote.
Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett has already ruled that Smith has information relevant to Trump’s speech on Jan. 6 and the subsequent Capitol attack.
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Trump sued the BBC in December over a documentary that combined two parts of his speech that preceded the Capitol riot, alleging the BBC’s edit falsely suggested he encouraged the attack. The BBC argued Smith’s evidence could show that Trump helped cause the violence.
The BBC has turned the lawsuit against Trump into an opportunity to seek records as part of the discovery process.
The broadcaster also noted that the Justice Department allowed Smith to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month.
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