Wednesday, January 14, 2026 - The BBC plans to ask a court to throw out President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the British broadcaster, court papers show.
Trump filed a lawsuit in December over the way the BBC
edited a speech he gave on Jan. 6, 2021. The claim, filed in a Florida federal
court, seeks $5 billion in damages for defamation and $5 billion for unfair
trade practices.
The speech took place before some of Trump’s supporters
stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress was poised to certify President-elect Joe
Biden’s victory in the 2020 election that Trump falsely alleged was stolen from
him.
The BBC had broadcast the documentary — titled “Trump: A
Second Chance?” — days before the 2024 U.S. presidential election. It spliced
together three quotes from two sections of the 2021 speech, delivered almost an
hour apart, into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters
to march with him and “fight like hell.”
Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he
wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.
The broadcaster has apologized to Trump over the edit of the
Jan. 6 speech. But the publicly funded BBC rejects claim it defamed him. The
furor triggered the resignations of the BBC’s top executive and its head of
news.
Papers filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Miami say the
BBC will file a motion to dismiss the case on March 17 on the basis that the
court lacks jurisdiction and Trump failed to state a claim.
The broadcaster’s lawyers will argue that the BBC did not
create, produce or broadcast the documentary in Florida and that Trump’s claim
the documentary was available in the U.S. on streaming service BritBox is not
true.
It will also argue that Trump has failed to “plausibly
allege” the BBC acted with malice in airing the documentary.
Attorney Charles Tobin, for the BBC, said Trump can’t prove
actual damages because he won reelection by a commanding margin, and carried
Florida by 13-point margin, better than his 2016 and 2020 performances.
He said the documentary also couldn’t have harmed his
reputation because it aired after Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury
over alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including allegations he
“directed the crowd in front of him to go to the Capitol.”
The BBC is asking the court to postpone discovery — the
pretrial process in which parties must turn over documents and other
information —pending a decision on the motion to dismiss. The discovery process
could require the BBC to hand over reams of emails and other materials related
to its coverage of Trump.
“Engaging in unbounded merits-based discovery while the
motion to dismiss is pending will subject defendants to considerable burdens
and costs that will be unnecessary if the motion is granted,” Tobin wrote.
If the case continues, a 2027 trial date has been proposed.
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