The BBC is fighting back against former President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit, court filings reveal, setting up a high-stakes legal battle over a documentary that edited his January 6 speech.
At a Glance
- The BBC will ask a Florida court to dismiss Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit
- The suit stems from a BBC documentary that edited Trump’s January 6, 2021 speech by combining quotes from different parts of the speech
- The BBC has apologized for the edit but denies defaming Trump
- The broadcaster argues the court lacks jurisdiction and Trump failed to state a valid claim
The legal showdown centers on the BBC documentary “Trump: A Second Chance?” which aired days before the 2024 presidential election. The film spliced together three quotes from two sections of Trump’s speech delivered almost an hour apart, making it appear as one continuous statement where Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.”
The edit removed a section where Trump told supporters to demonstrate peacefully.
The Lawsuit and BBC Response
Trump filed the lawsuit in December in Florida, seeking $5 billion for defamation and another $5 billion for unfair trade practices. The claim relates specifically to how the BBC edited his speech delivered on January 6, 2021, before some of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
The BBC’s legal team filed papers Monday with Florida’s Southern District court outlining their strategy to dismiss the case. Their arguments include:
- The court lacks jurisdiction over the matter
- The venue is improper
- Trump has failed to state a claim
- The BBC did not create, produce or broadcast the documentary in Florida
- The documentary was not available on U.S. streaming service BritBox as Trump claimed
The broadcaster’s lawyers will also argue that Trump cannot “plausibly allege” the BBC acted with malice in airing the documentary.
Fallout and Legal Proceedings
The controversy has already had significant consequences for the British broadcaster. The furor triggered the resignations of both the BBC’s top executive and its head of news.
Despite apologizing to Trump for the edit, the publicly funded BBC has rejected claims it defamed the former president.
The BBC is requesting the court to “stay all other discovery” while the motion to dismiss is pending. This would halt the pretrial process where parties would need to gather information, which could require the BBC to hand over emails and other documents related to its Trump coverage.
If the case proceeds, a 2027 trial date has been proposed.
“As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case,” the BBC said Tuesday in a statement. “We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”
The lawsuit represents one of the largest defamation claims in recent history and could set important precedents for how international media organizations edit and present political content for U.S. audiences.
