In re Application of the British Broadcasting Corporation, et al., for Access to Opinions and Orders Adjudicating Certain Assertions of Executive Privilege
Case Overview
The British Broadcasting Corporation and two of its production affiliates have asked the federal court in Washington to unseal a set of grand-jury rulings from Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation into the 2020 election. The formal caption is In re Application of the British Broadcasting Corporation, et al., for Access to Opinions and Orders Adjudicating Certain Assertions of Executive Privilege. The rulings at issue, issued by then-Chief Judge Beryl Howell, rejected President Trump's assertions of executive privilege that had sought to keep fourteen Executive Branch witnesses from testifying to the grand jury across five sealed proceedings. Redacted versions were released in part in 2025, but the applicants say they remain too heavily redacted to be useful.
The broadcaster wants the fuller rulings because it is defending a separate lawsuit. Trump is suing the BBC and its affiliates in federal court in Miami for defamation and for violating Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, demanding five billion dollars in damages on each count, over a 2024 episode of the Panorama program that edited together portions of his January 6 Ellipse speech. In that Florida case the BBC has propounded discovery into Trump's communications around the speech, and Trump has again asserted executive privilege to withhold the records. The applicants argue that Rule 6(e) of the criminal rules and the First Amendment right of access both require releasing the Washington rulings so they can inform the Florida court.
The Justice Department opposed the application. Chief Judge James E. Boasberg, who now oversees the sealed executive-privilege matters, heard argument by video on September 3, 2026.
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The Conclusion
Chief Judge Boasberg heard argument on the BBC's application by video on September 3, 2026, and took the matter under advisement. He has not yet ruled, so the executive-privilege rulings remain in their current, redacted form for now. If the court grants the application, the fuller rulings on Trump's rejected privilege claims would become public and available for use in the Florida defamation case. If it denies the application, the existing redactions stay in place.
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