The BBC will take legal steps to try and force President Donald Trump’s $10billion defamation lawsuit over its edit of a Panorama episode to be dismissed, according to court documents.
The episode, broadcast just days before the 2024 election, faced fierce backlash for giving the impression Mr Trump had encouraged his supporters to storm the Capitol building on January 6, 2021.
The Telegraph revealed in November that the programme spliced together sections of a speech delivered by Mr Trump on January 6, 2021, which resulted in him appearing to say: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
Mr Trump’s lawyers previously slammed the edit as “false and defamatory”, and claimed the BBC doctored his speech to sway voters in line with its “leftist political agenda”.
Court documents filed on Monday revealed that the public broadcaster will file a motion to dismiss, arguing the Florida court where the charges were filed does not have “personal jurisdiction” over them.
The BBC will claim the venue of the court is “improper” and that the President has “failed to state a claim”, according to the documents.
It will also argue that the Panorama episode was not produced, created or broadcasted in Florida.
Mr Trump has previously claimed the episode was available to Americans through the BritBox streaming service, which the BBC will argue is not true.
Court documents filed on Monday revealed that the BBC will file a motion to dismiss
| BBC
The corporation will assert that the President had not “plausibly alleged” the BBC aired the episode with “actual malice” – something public officials must do when launching defamation lawsuits in the US.
The Florida court has been asked by the BBC “to stay all other discovery” – the pre-trial process which enables the parties to gather evidence relating to the case – while awaiting for the outcome on the motion.
If the case proceeds, a trial date for 2027 has been proposed.
The revelations over the Panorama edit sparked a crisis at the BBC, leading to the resignations of director-general Tim Davie and the CEO of News, Deborah Turness.
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The revelations sparked a crisis at the BBC, leading to the resignation of director-general Tim Davie
| PA
The BBC has denied deliberately editing the January 6 speech to portray Mr Trump negatively and has refused to pay any compensation.
However, the corporation admitted the programme may have given “the mistaken impression that President Trump called for violent action” and said it would not broadcast the 2024 programme again.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office last month, Mr Trump claimed the broadcaster may have used artificial intelligence to create false quotes, labelling it “fake news”.
He said: “Literally, they put words in my mouth.
Mr Trump claimed the broadcaster may have used artificial intelligence to create false quotes
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GETTY
“They actually have me speaking with words that I never said, and they got caught because I believe somebody at BBC said this is so bad, it has to be reported.”
Mr Trump has has a track record of winning multi-million-dollar settlements from large media outlets.
ABC News agreed to a $15million (£11.2million) settlement in 2024 after its lead anchor wrongly claimed he had been found “liable for rape”.
Last year, CBS News settled for $16million (£12million) over its edit of an interview with Kamala Harris, which the President argued was manipulated to make her appear more coherent.
