BBC to file motion to dismiss Trump lawsuit over Panorama edit – court documents

The BBC will take legal steps to have Donald Trump’s 10 billion dollar defamation lawsuit over a Panorama programme edit dismissed, court documents have shown.

Panorama faced criticism late last year over an episode broadcast in 2024, for giving the impression the US president had encouraged his supporters to storm the Capitol building in 2021.

In the episode, a clip from Mr Trump’s speech on January 6 2021 was spliced to show him saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”

Mr Trump is seeking up to 10 billion dollars (£7.5 billion) in damages in response to the editing of the speech, with his lawyers claiming it was “false and defamatory”.

The BBC will file a motion to dismiss, claiming the Florida court lacks “personal jurisdiction” over them, 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.

“Simply clicking on the link that plaintiff cites for this point shows it is not on BritBox,” the broadcaster’s lawyers said in court documents.

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.

In asking for discovery to be delayed, lawyers for the BBC said: “The plaintiff will seek broad, objectionable discovery on the merits, implicating the BBC’s entire scope of coverage of Donald J Trump over the past decade or more and claiming injury to his entire business and political profiles.”

A 2027 trial date has been proposed should the case continue.

A BBC spokesperson said: “As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case. We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”