From the complaint in Piker v. Jennings; of course, this is just Piker's side of the story—I expect we'll get Jennings' in a forthcoming motion to dismiss:

On August 11, 2026, Scott Jennings falsely told a nationwide podcast audience that Hasan Piker was "out there calling for Black voters to be lynched." He falsely told his listeners that Mr. Piker had a "plan of returning our country to lynchings." And then he falsely told his social media followers that Mr. Piker "says the USA should resume lynchings against black people."

All of Mr. Jennings' accusations are false. Mr. Piker has never advocated the lynching of Black Americans, or anyone else. He has never called for a return to lynchings. And he has never proposed anything remotely resembling the supposed plan that Mr. Jennings falsely attributed to him.

Mr. Jennings did not merely mischaracterize something Mr. Piker said. He took a false, fabricated, and manipulated video of Mr. Piker, added a made-up quotation that Mr. Piker never uttered, and then made accusations that went beyond even what the manipulated footage purported to show. Mr. Jennings presented those accusations as fact, telling his viewers to "[l]isten for yourself" about Mr. Piker, knowing that he was playing a falsified video of Mr. Piker for those viewers, and completely disregarding the truth of Mr. Piker's actual words.

The underlying footage came from a broadcast nearly two years earlier on Twitch, an online streaming service owned by Amazon. On October 29, 2024, Mr. Piker was reacting to a debate between two Black political commentators, one liberal and one conservative. When the conservative commentator blamed "woke DAs" for policies supposedly harming Black Americans, Mr. Piker mocked him by sarcastically portraying that comment as nostalgia for an era before the civil rights movement. Laughing, Mr. Piker said:

He said, "We need more Klansmen, okay? Can we go back to a better time when lynchings were happening? This is what I like as a Black man. Also, there's no real racism in America." My man said, "woke DAs," dude. What are you saying?

Mr. Piker was plainly ridiculing the commentator's position. He was not endorsing it. The debate video remained visible behind him. Mr. Piker introduced the remarks with "He said," laughed as he delivered them, and concluded by questioning the commentator's argument. His viewers understood the sarcasm. Some laughed along. Others expressly described his comments as hyperbole. Still others predicted that someone would eventually remove the context and circulate the resulting footage as though Mr. Piker had been speaking sincerely.

That is precisely what happened. In August 2026, a 42-second video began circulating on social media that combined fragments of three separate Twitch broadcasts. The portions taken from Mr. Piker's October 2024 stream had been cropped, shortened, and rearranged. The underlying debate was removed from view. So was the contemporaneous audience commentary.

The words "He said," which identified the object of Mr. Piker's ridicule, were omitted. Mr. Piker's laughter and subsequent explanation were also removed. The resulting video portrayed sarcastic criticism of another as though it were an expression of Mr. Piker's own beliefs.

On August 11, 2026, Mr. Jennings broadcast that false video on The Scott Jennings Show, misrepresenting the manipulated video as authentic. But Mr. Jennings did not stop at repeating someone else's misleading edit. He added his own caption to the video, presented as a direct quotation from Mr. Piker:

PIKER: "LET'S GO BACK TO A BETTER TIME WHEN LYNCHINGS WERE HAPPENING" …

Mr. Piker never said those words. The original broadcast does not contain that statement. Neither does the manipulated video that Mr. Jennings chose to air. Mr. Jennings converted a sarcastic question, expressly attributed to and directed toward someone else, into a patently false first-person statement of Mr. Piker's own supposed beliefs, and then relayed that false statement to his viewers.

Mr. Jennings then went even further. After warning Black listeners to pay particular attention, Mr. Jennings accused Mr. Piker of "calling for Black voters to be lynched" and referred to "the Piker plan of returning our country to lynchings." Later that day, Mr. Jennings published the same false accusation on social media, telling his followers that Mr. Piker believed the United States "should resume lynchings against black people."

These were not expressions of disagreement with Mr. Piker's politics. Nor were they rhetorical characterizations of an admittedly controversial commentator. They were factual assertions about what Mr. Piker had said and advocated in his work. Each statement was demonstrably false.

The distinction matters. Mr. Jennings was free to criticize Mr. Piker, to condemn his political positions, or to argue that his commentary was offensive. Mr. Jennings was also free to play Mr. Piker's actual words, and provide his own commentary on what Mr. Piker actually said. Mr. Jennings was not free to do what he did: knowingly attribute to Mr. Piker statements that Mr. Piker never made, and then present those invented statements as evidence that Mr. Piker supports the racially motivated murder of Black Americans….

The post Hasan Piker Sues Scott Jennings appeared first on Reason Magazine.

From Magistrate Judge Enjolique A. Lett (S.D. Fla.):

[1.] Defendant served its Notice of Subpoena Duces Tecum to non-party Mar-a-Lago Club, LLC ("MAL") seeking two discrete categories of documentation: (1) documents sufficient to identify the total number of applications for MAL membership from January 6, 2020, through January 6, 2026, and (2) documents sufficient to identify the total cost of membership and initiation fees for a new MAL applicant from January 6, 2020, through January 6, 2026. Defendant contends it needs this information for discovery purposes to generally contest Plaintiff's allegation of damages of "not less than $10,000,000,000."

The scope of discovery is broad, allowing each party to "obtain discovery regarding any nonprivileged matter that is relevant to any party's claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case…." Notably here, non-party MAL has neither moved to quash the subpoena nor raised any burdensome objections. In fact, the only issue before the Court is Plaintiff's contention that the subpoena seeks discovery outside the permissible scope of the amended pleadings.

The Court disagrees. The Amended Complaint alleges Defendant's defamatory actions "injured President Trump in his profession, occupation, and trade," "damaged President Trump in his occupation," and "damaged his professional reputation." As Chief Executive of the United States, it is publicly known that President Trump often carries out his presidential duties in MAL. See, e.g. President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at Mar-a-Lago.

Moreover, the scope of discovery is broader than the scope of admissibility. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(1) ("[i]nformation within this scope of discovery need not be admissible in evidence to be discoverable"). Plaintiff's argument that President Trump is not synonymous with and does not affect the financial success or failure of MAL may be well taken as it relates to the admissibility of the sought-after evidence, but at this stage in the proceedings, given MAL's relationship with the profession and professional persona of President Trump, Defendant's subpoena is a permissible basis of inquiry.

[2.] There can be no dispute that all parties, even some non-parties, must participate in the discovery process. This is especially true of a plaintiff who initiates the lawsuit and seeks affirmative relief.

Unsurprisingly therefore, Plaintiff does not dispute that he must sit for a deposition; the only point of contention is the timing of said deposition. Despite scheduling the deposition for October 16, 2026, President Trump unilaterally cancelled the deposition and did not offer alternative dates within the discovery period notwithstanding the quickly approaching December 18, 2026, discovery deadline. In light of this, the time for the deposition to occur is now….

President Trump shall sit for his deposition on or before December 11, 2026. Failure to do so may result in sanctions, including dismissal of the lawsuit. It is the Court's understanding that another extension of the discovery deadline may be sought. In the event Judge Kuntz grants such a request, the parties may agree to a mutually convenient date to conduct President Trump's deposition within the extended discovery period.

Charles David Tobin, Maxwell S. Mishkin, Maya Devi Gandhi, Richard W. Miller, Sasha (Alexandra) Dudding, and Yanni Chen (Ballard Spahr LLP) represent the BBC.

The post Two Brief Discovery-Related Orders in <i>Trump v. BBC</i> appeared first on Reason Magazine.