March 17, 2026 7:22AM

BBC Asks Judge to Toss Trump’s $10 Billion Defamation Case

The BBC asked a judge in Florida to dismiss President Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit over the way a speech of his was edited in a documentary

By Jon Blistein

The BBC is asking a judge to toss the $10 billion defamation suit President Donald Trump filed against the U.K. broadcaster late last year.

The original complaint, filed in December in the Southern District of Florida, centered around the way sections of a speech Trump gave on Jan. 6, 2021, the day of the Capitol riot, were edited together in an episode of the BBC’s long-running news show Panorama, which aired before the 2024 election. Trump accused the BBC of falsely and internally making it seem as if he’d “fomented violence” among his supporters with his speech.

The episode spliced together sections of Trump’s speech taken from almost an hour apart. The clips found Trump saying, “we’re going to walk down to the Capitol,” “and I’ll be there with you,” and “we fight, we fight like hell, if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country anymore.” Last fall, as Trump was threatening litigation (as he’s been wont to do over news coverage he does not like), the BBC did issue an apology saying it “sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited.” However, the broadcaster maintained that the edited footage did not form the basis for a defamation case.

In its official motion to dismiss, obtained by Rolling Stone, the BBC reiterated its stance. They said Trump’s claims fell “well short of the high bar of actual malice,” nor do they suggest that the BBC “knowingly intended to create a false impression.” They stated that Trump “cannot plausibly claim the documentary harmed his reputation” either because he went on to win the 2024 election (and handily won the state of Florida).

Furthermore, the BBC said that the message conveyed by the edited clip was exactly the same one many Trump’s supporters took from his Jan. 6 speech as a whole. “Indeed, nothing better reflects how President Trump’s supporters understood his remarks than their own statements, and over 100 defendants charged with offenses related to January 6 told the courts that they interpreted President Trump’s remarks as a call to action,” the motion reads.

Additionally, the BBC’s lawyers called for a dismissal on jurisdictional grounds, arguing that Trump can’t sue the BBC in Florida for a documentary made in London that never officially aired in the United States. While Trump’s lawyers claimed voters in Florida could’ve seen the Panorama episode on BritBox (the BBC’s international streaming platform), the BBC countered that it “did not distribute the Documentary” on either BritBox or its website.

In a statement shared with Rolling Stone, a spokesman for Trump’s legal team said, “The BBC is liable to President Trump for intentionally and maliciously defaming him by distorting and manipulating his speech. No amount of attempted legal maneuvers can change that fact. President Trump will continue to hold accountable the BBC and all those who traffic in fake news.”