BBC will file movement to dismiss Trump’s multi-billion-dollar lawsuit for defamation over Panorama edit
The BBC will fight to have Donald Trump‘s $10billion lawsuit over its editing of a speech in a Panorama programme thrown out, court documents show.
The US president filed the lawsuit in a Florida court last month, accusing the BBC of defamation and violating trade practices, and seeking $5billion on each count.
In the clip at the centre of the row, Mr Trump appeared to encourage 2021’s Capitol riots by saying: ‘We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.’
But in reality, that message was formed from two clips around 54 minutes apart that had been spliced together and aired a week before the 2024 presidential election.
The BBC previously apologised to Mr Trump and withdrew the report, but refused to pay any compensation – prompting the lawsuit.
Tim Davie, the BBC’s Director General from 2020, resigned in November alongside his head of news, Deborah Turness, amid the editing scandal storm.
Now, court documents reveal the BBC’s strategy is to get the mammoth suit dismissed.
Its lawyers will argue that the Florida court does not have ‘personal jurisdiction’ over the BBC, the court venue is ‘improper’ and that Trump has ‘failed to state a claim’.
The BBC edited a speech of Donald Trump’s that made it appear he was encouraging the Capitol riots of 2021
On January 6, 2021, hundreds of Trump supporters stormed and broke into the Capitol Building in Washington
They will claim that, since the documentary was not created, produced or broadcast in Florida, the case should be thrown out.
Trump’s lawyers have claimed that the documentary aired on BritBox, a service that streams BBC content around the world, but the corporation will insist this is incorrect.
‘Simply clicking on the link that plaintiff cites for this point shows it is not on BritBox,’ the court documents read.
It will add that Trump has failed to ‘plausibly allege’ the documentary was published with ‘actual malice’, which public officials are required to prove when filing defamation suits in the US.
The documents note that the clip is just 15 seconds of an hour-long programme containing extensive coverage of his supporters and balanced coverage of his path to re-election.
Mr Trump’s legal filing claimed the doctored speech, broadcast a week before the 2024 election, was designed to interfere with the vote and is in keeping with the ‘disgraced’ corporation’s ‘Leftist political agenda’.
The BBC has asked the court to ‘stay all other discovery’, which would mean pausing the pre-trial information gathering process, until a decision has been reached on its new motion.
Former BBC Director General Tim Davie resigned amid the row over the doctored speech
In asking for discovery to be delayed, lawyers for the BBC said: ‘The plaintiff will seek broad, objectionable discovery on the merits, implicating the BBC’s entire scope of coverage of Donald J Trump over the past decade or more and claiming injury to his entire business and political profiles.’
A 2027 trial date has been proposed should the case continue.
A BBC spokesperson said: ‘As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case. We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings.’
If the motion to dismiss is unsuccessful, Mr Trump will need to prove the edit was false and defamatory and the BBC knowingly misled viewers or acted recklessly, in order to overcome the US Constitution’s legal protections for free speech and the Press.
The BBC was previously warned against fighting Mr Trump.
Christopher Ruddy, chief executive of the conservative US network Newsmax, told the Today Programme: ‘I don’t think it’s good for the BBC for this to go forward. The purpose here for the President is not to get $5billion, it’s to demonstrate a point – and maybe also get some money.
‘If I was looking into a crystal ball, I might say this case would settle probably around $10million.
‘The cost of litigation for the BBC to go through a case like this in the United States with attorneys would be probably about $50million to $100million and the President has an excellent attorney.
‘I’m sure that BBC has enough money to cover a settlement that size.’
