BBC requests US court to dismiss Trump’s $10bn defamation lawsuit over documentary edit

Washington: The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has urged a US judge to dismiss a $10 billion defamation lawsuit filed by former President Donald Trump concerning the editing of his 2021 speech in a documentary.

According to court documents released on Monday, the BBC argued that Trump’s re-election demonstrated that the alleged defamation did not damage his reputation. The lawsuit, filed in Florida, accuses the BBC of defaming Trump by editing together segments of his January 6, 2021, speech in a way that suggested he directed his supporters to storm the US Capitol.

The documentary, which first aired in 2024 shortly before the US presidential election, included a sequence where Trump told his supporters to march on the Capitol, followed by another segment from nearly an hour later in which he said, “fight like hell.” Trump’s legal team claims that this editing misrepresented his statements and violated a Florida law against deceptive and unfair trade practices.

The BBC has issued an apology to Trump for the editing of the speech. However, the broadcaster maintains that the lawsuit should be dismissed, citing Trump’s subsequent electoral victory as evidence that the broadcast did not cause him reputational harm.

The case remains before the US court as the BBC seeks dismissal of the lawsuit.