The BBC has filed papers in a US federal court in Florida seeking to dismiss a $10 billion lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump over a documentary broadcast by the British broadcaster.
Trump’s suit, filed last year, concerns a BBC programme that edited his January 6, 2021 speech during the US Capitol certification of Joe Biden’s election victory.
The documentary spliced together two parts of the speech in a manner that, according to Trump, made it appear he had directly encouraged supporters to attack the Capitol.
The lawsuit seeks damages of at least $5 billion for each of two counts, alleging defamation and breach of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
In the filings submitted on Monday in federal court in Miami, BBC lawyers argued that the court lacks “personal jurisdiction” and that Trump cannot demonstrate that the documentary caused him any measurable harm.
The papers stated that Trump had described the alleged damage only in vague terms, such as “harm to his professional and occupational interests,” and highlighted that he had won reelection on 5 November 2024, carrying Florida by a 13-point margin.
The BBC’s filing also noted that the documentary aired before the 2024 election but was not broadcast in the United States, a factor the broadcaster will cite in its motion to dismiss.
Trump’s lawsuit claims the BBC “fabricated” the edited speech and accused the organisation of attempting to influence the 2024 election to his disadvantage.
The BBC has denied the allegations, although chairman Samir Shah sent Trump a letter of apology last year and told a UK parliamentary committee in November that the broadcaster should have acted sooner to acknowledge the error.
The controversy over the documentary led to the resignation of BBC director general Tim Davie and top news executive Deborah Turness. A spokesperson for the BBC said on Tuesday: “As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case. We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”
