London: The BBC will ask a court to throw out US President Donald Trump’s USD 10 billion lawsuit against the British broadcaster, court papers show.
Trump filed a lawsuit in December over the way the BBC edited a speech he gave January 6, 2021. The claim, filed in a Florida court, seeks USD 5 billion in damages for defamation and USD 5 billion for unfair trade practices.
The speech took place before some of Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol as Congress was poised to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election that Trump falsely alleged was stolen from him.
The BBC had broadcast the documentary titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” days before the 2024 US presidential election. It spliced together three quotes from two sections of the 2021 speech, delivered almost an hour apart, into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.
The broadcaster has apologised to Trump over the edit of the Janaury 6 speech. But the publicly funded BBC rejected claims it had defamed him. The furore triggered the resignations of the BBC’s top executive and its head of news.
Papers filed Monday with Florida’s Southern District court say the BBC will file a motion to dismiss the case on the basis that the court lacks jurisdiction, the court venue is “improper”, and Trump has “failed to state a claim.”
The broadcaster’s lawyers will argue that the BBC did not create, produce or broadcast the documentary in Florida and that Trump’s claim that the documentary was available in the US on streaming service BritBox is not true.
It will also argue that Trump has failed to “plausibly allege” the BBC acted with malice in airing the documentary.
The BBC is asking the court to “stay all other discovery” the pretrial process, in which parties gather information pending a decision on the motion to dismiss. The discovery process could require the BBC to hand over reams of emails and other documents related to its coverage of Trump.
If the case continues, a 2027 trial date has been proposed.
“As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case,” the BBC said Tuesday in a statement.
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