Federal judge denies BBC motion to dismiss Trump's $10 billion defamation lawsuit

A federal judge in Florida has denied the BBC's motion to dismiss President Donald Trump's $10 billion defamation lawsuit, allowing the case to proceed to discovery. The ruling came on Tuesday from U.S. District Judge Jeffrey T. Kuntz of the Southern District of Florida, whom Trump appointed to the bench earlier this year.

The lawsuit stems from a BBC Panorama documentary titled "Trump: A Second Chance?" that aired a week before the 2024 U.S. presidential election. The program edited Trump's speech from January 6, 2021, splicing together two remarks made nearly 55 minutes apart. The first line was "We're going to walk down to the Capitol and I'll be there with you," and the second was "And we fight. We fight like hell and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."

Judge Kuntz wrote that the BBC tried to frame the editing as ordinary editing done to condense a seventy-minute-long speech into twelve seconds, but the court was not persuaded. "This was not trimming around the edges but creating something different than what was stated in the speech," Kuntz ruled. He also wrote that "On its face, the editing may independently establish the plausibility of actual malice."

The BBC apologized in November 2025, saying the edit had given "the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action." Two top BBC executives resigned amid the fallout. The broadcaster has argued that the editing does not rise to the level of defamation and that Trump cannot show actual damages or "actual malice," the high standard for defamation of public figures under the Supreme Court ruling in New York Times v. Sullivan.

In his ruling, Kuntz disparaged that precedent while acknowledging he is bound by it. "It cannot be said that Sullivan is grounded in the original meaning of the Constitution, at least not in any meaningful sense," the judge wrote. "Nor is Sullivan grounded in the history and tradition of the common law… It is logical then, that a public figure like the President of the United States should not be subjected to a heightened standard non-existent at the time of the Founding."

The judge dismissed Trump's separate claim under Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, finding that the documentary did not amount to commercial speech. He also determined that Trump will have to prove he suffered "actual damages" from the airing of the documentary, which was not broadcast in Florida.

Trump celebrated the ruling as "a Huge Victory against Fake News BBC" in a post on Truth Social, and praised Kuntz for his "powerful ruling." A spokesperson for the BBC said the news organization was surprised by the ruling.

"We are surprised by this decision but respect the Court's authority and note the case will now proceed to the next stage," the spokesperson said. "We remain confident in our position and will continue to respond through the proper legal process."

The case will proceed to discovery. Trump has been ordered to sit for a deposition by December 11, though that date could be postponed. In late October, a Florida magistrate judge ruled that Trump will have to sit for a deposition conducted by lawyers for the BBC by December 11 or else he could be hit with sanctions.

Sources

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