A federal judge in the United States has permitted President Donald Trump’s $10bn (£7.4bn) defamation claim against the BBC to advance, handing a setback to the UK public broadcaster.
In the civil suit, the US president argues that the BBC deceptively edited a documentary about the January 6 Capitol attack, alleging that the corporation acted with actual malice in an effort to harm his reputation.
Jeffrey T Kuntz, a Trump-appointed district judge for the Southern District of Florida, delivered a 40-page ruling on Tuesday that partially denied the broadcaster’s motion to dismiss the case.
The judge found that Trump’s assertion that the BBC harmed his reputation while knowing, or having reason to know, that the footage was misleading had been “plausibly alleged” — that is, credible enough to proceed. The decision advances the litigation but does not amount to a finding that Trump has substantiated those allegations.
At the heart of the president’s claim is an October 2024 documentary titled Trump: A Second Chance?
The programme included excerpts from Trump’s January 6, 2021 address to supporters outside the White House, in which he is accused of directing the crowd toward the US Capitol as legislators gathered to certify former President Joe Biden’s victory.
Trump contends that the documentary was selectively edited, splicing two separate video and audio segments of the same speech delivered roughly 55 minutes apart, and that the cuts were arranged to create the impression he was openly inciting violence.
The combined clips included one passage in which he urged supporters to march to the Capitol and another in which he said, “Fight like hell.”
The president has consistently denied telling his supporters to engage in violence in an attempt to halt the peaceful transfer of power, even as he has continued to falsely assert that electoral fraud cost him the 2020 election.
He also argued that the edited portions stripped out his appeals for peaceful protest.
The BBC acknowledged that the edit was misleading and issued an apology to Trump on November 13, 2025, roughly a month before he filed suit. In its bid to have the case thrown out, the broadcaster argued that the footage had condensed a 70-minute speech — an argument the judge rejected.
BBC ‘Surprised by Decision’
The corporation nevertheless maintains that it did not defame the president.
A BBC spokesperson said: “We are 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.”
On Tuesday, Trump described the ruling on Truth Social as a “huge victory against Fake News BBC”.
After forgoing a scheduled October deposition in favour of campaigning ahead of the midterm elections, the president now faces a court-imposed December 11 deadline to give sworn testimony or see his case dismissed.
The complaint, originally lodged in federal court in Miami in December 2025, sought at least $5bn in damages apiece for defamation and for violations of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. The judge dismissed the trade practices claim on Tuesday.
The row over the edited speech, broadcast on the BBC’s Panorama programme shortly before the 2024 presidential election, triggered a public relations crisis that ultimately cost the broadcaster its two most senior executives their jobs.
The BBC suit forms part of a broader effort by Trump, who has privately filed multiple actions against news organisations as part of a sustained campaign against coverage he finds unfavourable.
His lawyers have sought enormous financial penalties from major publishers across several jurisdictions.
The president is currently pursuing a separate $10bn defamation action against The Wall Street Journal, which he refiled in May following an earlier dismissal. That refiled suit was thrown out on October 31, and Trump is appealing. A further defamation case seeks $15bn in damages from The New York Times and the publisher Penguin Random House.
In September, Trump also sought to exclude CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House and its press pool, a blanket prohibition that a federal judge subsequently blocked, though the networks continue to contest restrictions on access to Air Force One and the Oval Office.
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