{"id":480014,"date":"2026-03-17T07:47:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T07:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/480014\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T07:47:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T07:47:13","slug":"chilling-donald-trump-lawsuit-should-be-thrown-out-bbc-says-world-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/480014\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Chilling’ Donald Trump lawsuit should be thrown out, BBC says | World News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The BBC has filed a motion in a US court to dismiss a $10bn lawsuit brought by US President Donald Trump over an edited documentary clip.<\/p>\n

The broadcaster claimed that the case could have a “chilling effect” on robust reporting.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump’s 33-page complaint relates to the corporation’s editing of a speech he made on 6 January 2021, the day his supporters stormed the US Capitol building.<\/p>\n

Clips were spliced together from sections of the his address to make it appear that he told supporters that he was going to walk with them to “fight like hell”.<\/p>\n

Among the parts cut out was a section where Mr Trump<\/a> said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.<\/p>\n

It aired in the documentary Trump: A Second Chance?, which was broadcast by the BBC the week before last year’s US election.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Image:
\n A view of the entrance to BBC Broadcasting House in London. File pic: PA<\/p>\n

Initially, Mr Trump had threatened to sue for $1bn, but the lawsuit filed in Florida on 16 December is for 10 times more – and more than double the annual revenue raised by the BBC’s licence fee in 2023-24.<\/p>\n

The claim seeks $5bn in damages for defamation, and a further $5bn for unfair trade practices.<\/p>\n

A trial date has been provisionally set for February next year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The BBC argued that the case should be thrown out<\/a> because the documentary was never aired in Florida or the US.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the broadcaster said: “We have therefore challenged jurisdiction of the Florida court and filed a motion to dismiss the president’s claim.”<\/p>\n

In a 34-page document, the BBC also argued that Mr Trump failed to “plausibly allege facts showing that defendants knowingly intended to create a false impression”.<\/p>\n

\"Outgoing<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Outgoing Director General of the BBC Tim Davie walks outside Portcullis House. File pic: Reuters<\/p>\n

Mr Trump’s case “falls well short of the high bar of actual malice”, it said.<\/p>\n

The document also claimed that “the chilling effect is clear” when Mr Trump is “among the most powerful and high-profile individuals in the world, on whose activities the BBC reports every day”.<\/p>\n

Read more:
What’s in the lawsuit and how has the BBC responded?<\/a>
Trump sues BBC for $10bn in lawsuit<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The BBC’s chair, Samir Shah, has already apologised to Mr Trump over the edit of the speech, and admitted that it gave “the impression of a direct call for violent action”.<\/p>\n

However, the corporation rejects claims that it defamed him.<\/p>\n

The furore triggered the resignations of the BBC’s top executive, and its head of news, last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The BBC has filed a motion in a US court to dismiss a $10bn lawsuit brought by US…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-480014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}