{"id":354515,"date":"2026-07-28T02:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T02:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/354515\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T02:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T02:54:10","slug":"donald-trumps-effort-to-run-his-lawsuits-out-of-florida-has-hit-a-snag-the-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/354515\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump’s effort to run his lawsuits out of Florida has hit a snag: the law"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"UNITED<\/a><\/p>\n

On Monday, a series of developments showed the difficulty, even for Donald Trump, of using the courts to threaten journalists and manipulate the federal government to his ends.<\/p>\n

In a trio of cases that Trump brought in federal courts in Florida, the limits of Trump\u2019s powers were made plain. <\/p>\n

In his defamation lawsuit against the BBC, U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqu\u00e9 Lett, in the Southern District of Florida, ordered<\/a> the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust to turn over significant financial information the BBC subpoenaed as part of discovery in the lawsuit. The trust challenged the subpoena, but Lett rejected the trust\u2019s arguments on Monday. Finding that the subpoena was not improper, disproportionate, or unduly burdensome, Lett ordered that:<\/p>\n

\"2.<\/a><\/p>\n

Per Lett, the subpoena seeks, among other documents, \u201cfinancial documents that reflect the Trust\u2019s holdings and value, including documents such as Trust instrument copies, documents relating to the Trust\u2019s financial interests, the Trust\u2019s schedules of assets, inventories, and lists of properties held, along with documents reflecting real property held.\u201c<\/p>\n

Under Lett\u2019s order, the first \u201csubstantial\u201d production is to happen in 10 days.<\/p>\n

\"UNITED<\/a><\/p>\n

In Trump\u2019s defamation lawsuit against The New York Times and others, Trump and his lawyers will have one last chance to save their case from being dismissed, following an order<\/a> U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday issued Monday in the Middle District of Florida. <\/p>\n

In opposing the Times\u2019s motion to dismiss, Trump\u2019s lawyers argued<\/a> that \u201cshould the Court be inclined to grant Defendants\u2019 Motion to Dismiss,\u201d he should be allowed the chance to \u201camend his Complaint to cure any such deficiencies.\u201c<\/p>\n

Merryday, a George H.W. Bush appointee who already struck<\/a> Trump\u2019s initial complaint, took them up on that on Monday, citing that part of Trump\u2019s opposition, and ordering: <\/p>\n

The plaintiff\u2019s motion for leave to amend the complaint is GRANTED, and no later than AUGUST 27, 2026, the plaintiff may amend the complaint.<\/p>\n

After that, the Times will have three weeks to stand on their earlier arguments or supplement their motion to dismiss. If they supplement their motion, Trump will have two weeks to respond. <\/p>\n

\"UNITED<\/a><\/p>\n

Finally, in Trump\u2019s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, the former government officials who challenged Trump\u2019s attempted \u201csettlement\u201d of the lawsuit filed a motion<\/a> asking the court to award \u201c$39,000.00 in attorneys\u2019 fees for work performed by counsel from Democracy Forward Foundation.\u201d <\/p>\n

This filing was a follow-on effect of U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams\u2019s July 13 sanctions order<\/a>, as one element of the inherent sanctions she issued against Trump <\/p>\n

Because \u201cthe Court expressly finds that Plaintiffs acted in bad faith,\u201d Williams, an Obama appointee, concluded that \u201c[t]he Court finds monetary sanctions appropriate under its inherent authority and prerogative to police the matters and litigants who avail themselves of its jurisdiction.\u201d Specifically, she continued, two sets of amici \u2014 one group of former government officials and public interest organizations, as well as a group of former judges \u2014 \u201cif they wish, may file, within fourteen (14) days of this Order, a memorandum regarding any appropriate reimbursement.\u201d <\/p>\n

One of those requests came in on Monday afternoon. <\/p>\n

[Update, 10:25 p.m.: A second request<\/a>, on behalf of the former federal judges amici, was filed on Monday night. They are seeking a smaller amount, including \u201cnominal fees of $1 for each of the four firms that represented them,\u201c as well as $4,606.83 for out-of-pocket expenses incurred in the representation: <\/p>\n

\"IV.<\/a><\/p>\n

In their filing, they noted that \u201c[a]n award is especially appropriate in this sui generis case, where there was a lack of adversity between the parties and the need for an independent entity to provide the Court with information and legal analysis is particularly acute.\u201c]<\/p>\n

Standing alone, these are just case developments like happen every day \u2014 although the order in the BBC case is significant and obviously Trump\u2019s underlying actions in the IRS case are in a league of their own. But, Monday\u2019s developments combined to serve as a reminder that, despite Trump\u2019s dreams of intimidation and control, he can only do so much in our system unless the other branches help him along the way. <\/p>\n

For those who don\u2019t know what this is, it\u2019s my effort to give a little thank you to paid subscribers. \u201cClosing my tabs\u201d is, literally, me looking through the stories and cases open \u2014 the tabs open \u2014 on my computer and sharing with you all some of those I was unable to cover during the week but that I nonetheless want to let you know that I have on my radar. Oftentimes, they are issues that will eventually find their way back into the newsletter as a case discussed moves forward or something new happens that provides me with a reason to cover the story more in depth.<\/p>\n

This Monday, these are the tabs I am closing: <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Monday, a series of developments showed the difficulty, even for Donald Trump, of using the courts to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-354515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}