A federal judge rejected the BBC’s bid to dismiss President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit over edits to a Jan. 6 documentary that aired ahead of the 2024 election.
In the ruling, issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Kuntz declared that Trump’s lawsuit outlined a plausible claim for defamation over the editing of comments the president made during his Jan. 6, 2021 speech around the time of the riot at the Capitol.
Kuntz highlighted more than once that the BBC had apologized to Trump for splicing together two comments he made at different points during the remarks, making it appear as though he had endorsed violence that day.
“On its face, the editing may independently establish the plausibility of actual malice,” Kuntz wrote. “BBC tries to frame this editing as ordinary editing done to condense a seventy-minute-long speech into twelve seconds. But the Court is not persuaded.”
While Kuntz acknowledged that “editing is often required,” he noted that “the time disparity between the two statements” and “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,” he continued. “BBC also had the entire speech available to them for nearly three years by the time of the Documentary.”
In response to the ruling, a BBC spokesperson told media outlets, “We are surprised by this decision but respect the Court’s authority and note the case will now proceed to the next stage.”
The spokesperson added: “We remain confident in our position and will continue to respond through the proper legal process. It would be inappropriate to comment further while proceedings are ongoing.”
Trump celebrated the ruling on Truth Social Tuesday, writing, “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.”
The BBC scored one legal win in Kuntz’s ruling however, as he tossed out Trump’s claim that the BBC violated a Florida law regarding unfair business practices.
This update comes over two weeks after Trump was ordered to sit for a deposition in his defamation suit by Dec. 11.
The president previously sued the BBC for $5 billion back in December 2025, alleging that a “false, deceptive and defamatory” edit of its “Panorama” documentary “Trump: A Second Chance?” gave the impression he encouraged violence ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. He also sought another $5 billion under Florida’s deceptive trade practices law.
The British broadcaster apologized for the editing, but denied that it defamed Trump — given he still won his re-election effort. Nonetheless, BBC Director General Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness resigned amid the controversy.
The BBC first moved to dismiss Trump’s lawsuit back in March, arguing that the Florida court lacked jurisdiction because the documentary was not distributed in the U.S. Trump then amended his complaint to include the allegations about VPN viewing. The BBC then filed a new motion to dismiss in August, in which they argued that unauthorized attempts to circumvent its geographic restrictions cannot give the Florida court jurisdiction over a program the BBC never distributed or licensed for viewing in the United States.
“The formerly respected and now disgraced BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally, maliciously and deceptively doctoring his speech in a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 Presidential Election,” a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team told TheWrap at the time. “The BBC has a long pattern of deceiving its audience in coverage of President Trump, all in service of its own leftist political agenda. President Trump’s powerhouse lawsuit is holding the BBC accountable for its defamation and reckless election interference just as he has held other fake news mainstream media responsible for their wrongdoing.”
