BBC seeks to dismiss Trump defamation lawsuit
The BBC will ask a court to throw out US 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 January 6, 2021. The claim, filed in a Florida 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 US 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 US 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 apologised to Trump over the edit of the January 6 speech. But the publicly funded BBC rejected claims it had defamed him. The furore triggered the resignations of the BBC’s top executive and its head of news.
Papers filed Monday with Florida’s Southern District court say the BBC will file a motion to dismiss the case on the basis that the court lacks jurisdiction, the court venue is “improper”, and Trump has “failed to State a claim.”
