Judge allows Trump defamation case against BBC to proceed but tosses 1 claim
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation case against the BBC remains on track, for the moment.
A federal judge in Florida ruled late Tuesday that Trump’s defamation claim could go forward, though he did not rule on the merits. The publicly funded British broadcaster had sought to dismiss the case.
Judge Jeffrey Kuntz did dismiss part of the lawsuit, tossing out a Trump claim that the BBC’s actions violated a Florida law concerning unfair business practices.
Trump filed his lawsuit against the BBC in December. The Republican president accused the BBC of defamation as well as deceptive and unfair trade practices related to a documentary, “Trump: A Second Chance?” The 33-page lawsuit accused the BBC of broadcasting a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction of President Trump,” calling it “a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence” the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
The BBC acknowledged that filmmakers had spliced together quotes from different sections of the speech Trump delivered to his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, before the storming of the U.S. Capitol, to make it seem that Trump was directly urging violence.
The broadcaster apologized over the editing, and that was something the judge made note of in his ruling Wednesday allowing the case to go forward. The head of the BBC and its top news executive both resigned. But the broadcaster denies Trump’s claims that it defamed him.
In October, a different judge in Florida ordered Trump to sit for a deposition in the case by Dec. 11. Lawyers for the BBC had complained that Trump was delaying his appearance in his own lawsuit. Charles Tobin, an attorney for the BBC, said that with two months left in the discovery period, “we still haven’t been able to depose the plaintiff.”
The BBC said in a statement after Tuesday's ruling that it was “surprised by this decision but respect the court’s authority and note the case will now proceed to the next stage."
“We remain confident in our position and will continue to respond through the proper legal process," the broadcaster said.
Trump called Kuntz’s latest ruling a major victory.
“A Huge Victory against Fake News BBC, a terrible abuser of the truth, just handed down by highly respected District Court Judge, Jeffrey T. Kuntz, of the Southern District of Florida,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
“We will continue fighting against, and defeating, all of those who try to deceive the American People!” Trump wrote Tuesday evening.
In his ruling, Kuntz described the editing done in the documentary, splicing together two parts of the speech, as more egregious than mere routine editing.
“Editing is often required,” the judge wrote. “However, given the time disparity between the two statements, the distance itself tends toward a plausible inference that BBC knew or should have known that the segment they were creating would not and could not have been a truthful statement. This was not trimming around the edges but creating something different than what was stated in the speech. BBC also had the entire speech available to them for nearly three years by the time of the documentary.”
The judge also wrote that Trump might have a plausible argument to demonstrate malice — whether or not he can ultimately prove this at trial — given past BBC reporting about him.
“Trump paints a picture that demonstrates the BBC has a record of allowing the publication of false statements in their portrayal of Trump,” the ruling said. “BBC asks the Court to put on blinders and treat the Panorama team as if they were blocked off from the rest of the organization, ignorant of everything else going on at BBC.”
The lawsuit is one of several skirmishes between Trump and the news media during his second term. Through administrative and executive action and sometimes through lawsuits, he has chosen to take a more aggressive approach toward the press and toward coverage he dislikes.
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