These 'high-stakes hearings' could decide fate of 3 Trump lawsuits

20 July

U.S. President Donald Trump at the FIFA World Cup 2026 in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on July 19, 2026. REUTERS/Lee Smith

This week, attorneys for President Donald Trump are heading to Florida for hearings connected to three of his major civil lawsuits. These "high-stakes hearings," according to Bloomberg News reporter Erik Larson, "follow a pair of major setbacks" Trump's legal team has suffered in the courts.

"Three hearings over three days — in Miami and Tampa — starting Monday will cover an array of arguments in suits against Capital One Financial Corp., the British Broadcasting Corp. and the New York Times, all accused of illegally wronging Trump for political reasons," Larson reports in Bloomberg News. "They all deny the allegations. They follow some big setbacks in other cases in recent months, including the July 2 dismissal of a $3.8 billion suit against the Washington Post by Trump's social media company, and a scathing ruling that a $10 billion suit Trump filed against the Internal Revenue Service was an abuse of the courts."

Larson continues, "Despite the losses, Trump has had some notable wins since he won the 2024 presidential election. Trump in February blocked the BBC's attempt to stall the exchange of evidence in his suit. And in the months after he took office, he reached multimillion-dollar settlements of suits against a host of major broadcasters and social media companies."

Trump was disappointed earlier this year when a judge threw out his lawsuits against the Wall Street Journal and Capitol One — although judges allowed the suits to be revised and refiled.

"The initial rulings in the suits against the Journal and the Capital One revealed a common theme: judges finding a lack of evidence supporting Trump's claims," Larson notes. "Trump's suits against CNN and political foe Hillary Clinton were tossed out for similar reasons. Trump's aggressive legal strategy has already had an impact on the lawyer spearheading the legal barrage, Trump’s personal attorney Alejandro Brito. The judge in the IRS case referred Brito to the Florida Bar for potential disciplinary proceedings, risking the reputation of a commercial lawyer tapped by Trump in 2023."

If the three hearings this week don't go well for Trump and his lawyers, the Bloomberg News journalist points out, appeals are likely.

"Trump could appeal any losses all the way to the Supreme Court, which can drag a case out for years," Larson observes. "The hearings this week include a fight over the subpoenas issued by the BBC as part of its defense, and oral arguments on the Times’ request to dismiss Trump's suit."

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