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A US judge has rejected the BBC’s motion to dismiss Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against the broadcaster allowing the case to proceed to trial.
The US president’s claim is based on the way the BBC edited a speech he gave on 6 January 2021 in its Panorama documentary.
On Tuesday, US District Judge Jeffrey T. Kuntz denied the British broadcaster’s attempt to have the defamation claim dismissed. He did, however, throw out a second claim, which Trump had brought under Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
Each claim was for at least $5bn (€4.48bn), meaning Kuntz’s ruling halves the lawsuit from $10 billion (€8.97bn) to at least $5 billion.
The case centres on a BBC documentary that spliced together two separate parts of the speech. The edit made it appear that Trump had explicitly urged his supporters to attack the US Capitol in Washington. Trump accuses the broadcaster of deceptively editing the programme to make it look as though he was inciting violence.
In his 40-page ruling, Kuntz wrote: “Whether President Trump can prove these claims and establish he sustained damages at summary judgment or trial is left for another day.”
But he said the gap between the two spliced sections pointed to deliberate distortion.
“Given the time disparity between the two statements, the distance itself tends toward a plausible inference that BBC knew or should have known that the segment they were creating would not and could not have been a truthful statement,” Kuntz wrote.
“This was not trimming around the edges but creating something different than what was stated in the speech.”
A BBC spokesperson said: “We are surprised by this decision but respect the Court’s authority and note the case will now proceed to the next stage. We remain confident in our position and will continue to respond through the proper legal process.”
Trump ordered to testify by December
Trump welcomed the ruling on his Truth Social platform, calling it “A Huge Victory”.
“We will continue fighting against, and defeating, all of those who try to deceive the American People!” he wrote.
Trump has also claimed the BBC had violated Florida law, specifically the Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, but the judge ruled that the documentary did not constitute commercial speech.
The BBC has apologised for the edit, which led to the resignation of director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness. However, it denies that the programme caused Trump any real harm.
The ruling follows a setback for Trump last month, when a magistrate judge ordered him to give a deposition by 11 December. The BBC had accused him of avoiding its efforts to obtain sworn testimony from him.
The court said that if Trump fails to attend, he could face sanctions, including the possible dismissal of his lawsuit.
Additional sources • AFP