THE BBC is trying to have Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit dismissed before it reaches trial.
The US president demanded a whopping $10billion (£7.5bn) in damages in a libel lawsuit after the corporation doctored one of his speeches.
Now, the national broadcaster has filed a motion to stay discovery in the president’s defamation lawsuit over a misleading Panorama programme, court documents show.
The Beeb will file a motion to dismiss, claiming the Florida court lacks “personal jurisdiction” over it, the court venue is “improper” and that Mr Trump has “failed to state a claim”, documents filed late on Monday evening UK time revealed.
The corporation will argue that it did not create, produce or broadcast the documentary in Florida and that Mr Trump’s claim that the documentary was available in the US on streaming service BritBox is not true.
It will also claim the president has failed to “plausibly allege” the BBC published the documentary with “actual malice”, which public officials are required to show when filing suit for defamation in the US.
The broadcaster has asked the court “to stay all other discovery” – the pre-trial process in which parties gather information – pending the decision on the motion.
A 2027 trial date has been proposed should the case continue.
A scandal erupted when the bungling broadcaster doctored a speech by Trump for an episode of Panorama.
The spliced clips made Trump appear to direct his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Trump has previously stated that he has an “obligation” to take legal action after the Beeb put “terrible words in my mouth”, despite the broadcaster grovelling for its mistake.
The BBC confirmed the Panorama programme will “not be broadcast again in this form or on any BBC platforms”.
During its apology, the broadcaster said: “This programme was reviewed after criticism of how President Donald Trump‘s 6th January 2021 speech was edited.
“During that sequence, we showed excerpts taken from different parts of the speech.”
They added: “We accept that our edit unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points in the speech, and that this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action.
“The BBC would like to apologise to President Trump for that error of judgement.”
BBC Newsnight was also been accused of doctoring footage of the US President’s speech and ignoring concerns raised about it.
In the Newsnight edit, Trump is presented as saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol.
“And we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. And we fight. We fight like hell.
“And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country anymore.”
A voiceover from presenter Kirsty Wark followed saying “and fight they did” over a clip of the Capitol riot.
Trump previously let rip over the October 2024 Panorama programme that spliced sections of his speech to suggest he directly stoked the 2021 insurrection.
The broadcaster’s documentary said: “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol, and I’ll be there with you and we fight.”
Whereas he actually said: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”
