BBC plans on asking Florida court to toss Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit

The BBC plans to ask a court to throw out U.S. 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 claims 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.

“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.”

—Jill Lawless and Brian Melley, Associated Press