Cohen predicts Trump will drop BBC lawsuit: ‘Too much at stake’

Court Battles Cohen predicts Trump will drop BBC lawsuit: ‘Too much at stake’ Comments: by Ryan Mancini - 08/06/26 12:44 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Ryan Mancini - 08/06/26 12:44 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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President Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen on Wednesday predicted that his old boss will drop his ongoing libel suit against the BBC, arguing there is “too much at stake.”

“I don’t think this is a winnable case,” Cohen said on “The Dan Abrams Show” on SiriusXM. “I don’t think that this is a smart move for him. I don’t think that the legal team, probably, gave him the best advice on it.”

Cohen said he thinks Trump’s legal team is looking at making a deal similar to his settlements with CBS in 2025 and ABC in 2024, which ended with those media outlets settling with the president.

“Not every case is going to go that way, and certainly not this one with the BBC,” he added. “I think that there’s too much at stake for him.”

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Roy Altman temporarily halted a deadline for Trump to hand over documents detailing the finances of his business empire to the BBC. These documents were intended to go to the BBC as part of the discovery process, with Trump’s lawyers objecting.

Altman, appointed by Trump in his first term, agreed to the president’s emergency request to halt producing the documents. The request for these documents was made after a magistrate judge agreed with the BBC that the lawsuit would give the BBC access to financial documents detailing the ownership and valuations of his business entities.

Trump filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC in December 2025 over an episode of its “Panorama” series titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” that aired before the 2024 presidential election.

The BBC apologized the month before for stringing together three separate portions of a speech from Trump, which made it appear as though he encouraged the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

The error resulted in the resignation of the network’s Director-General Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness.

But the BBC has fought back, denying the documentary edit amounted to defamation. Trump’s lawyers have accused the BBC of “intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring” Trump’s speech to supporters prior to the attack on the Capitol.

Trump previously settled a defamation suit with ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos for $15 million to go toward Trump’s presidential library. He accused the network and anchor of defamation after Stephanopoulos repeatedly said during a “This Week” interview that a jury found Trump “liable for rape” in a lawsuit brought by advice columnist E. Jean Carroll. The jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse under New York law, not rape.

Before its merger with Skydance, CBS News’s parent company Paramount Global agreed to settle with Trump for $16 million, which also went toward his presidential library. Trump filed the lawsuit in response to a “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, accusing the network of editing the interview to portray Harris in a more favorable light.