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The BBC has asked a US judge to throw out President Donald Trump’s $10bn lawsuit against the corporation over a misleadingly edited documentary, arguing that the Florida court lacks jurisdiction over the case and warning over the “chilling” effect on reporting.
Trump lodged a claim in December seeking damages of up to $10bn over the documentary, which he alleges was “fabricated” and defamatory. Trump brought the lawsuit in a personal capacity in a federal court in Florida.
However, in a new filing on Monday in Florida, BBC lawyers laid out arguments why the case cannot be heard in the US and so should be dismissed, which is seen by some BBC executives as the fastest means of defending a claim that could drag on into next year.
The BBC raised concerns about the impact of the lawsuit on free speech, saying that the president was “among the most powerful and high-profile individuals in the world, on whose activities the BBC reports every day . . . the chilling effect is clear”.
The filing said that Trump had brought a US lawsuit against a UK-based broadcaster BBC over a documentary produced in London, but argued that it did not air in the US at all. It asked the court to dismiss the case on the basis of a lack of jurisdiction.
The BBC said that despite “false” claims in Trump’s suit, the BBC never made the documentary available in the US on BritBox or BBC.com, while third-party distributors also never aired it in the US. The BBC iPlayer streaming service is “geo-blocked” from viewers.
The filing states that the “president has no basis at all to ask this court to exercise jurisdiction over defendants”.
In October 2024, the BBC aired a Panorama documentary on its UK TV channels and its streaming service, which was edited to seemingly portray the president as urging the crowd to assault the Capitol.
The BBC apologised for “unintentionally” giving “the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action” through an “error of judgment” in the editing of his speech. The BBC’s director-general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness both resigned after the scandal.
In its filings on Monday, the BBC said that the defamation claim also failed to “plausibly plead he was harmed” by the documentary or that the BBC published it with actual malice.
A BBC spokesperson said on Monday: “We have said throughout we will robustly defend the case against us. Put simply — the documentary was never aired in Florida — or the US. It wasn’t available to watch in the US on iPlayer, online or any other streaming platforms including BritBox and BBC Select.”
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit against the BBC comes as Trump has continued his attacks on US media, claiming over the weekend that “low life” media outlets were writing “intentionally misleading” stories about the conflict in the Middle East. Trump has already won payouts after threatening lawsuits against CBS and ABC in the past, although he has lost a number of others, including against CNN.