A federal judge in Florida has ruled that Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC can go ahead, rejecting the broadcaster’s attempt to have the case thrown out.

US District Judge Jeffrey Kuntz ruled on Tuesday, 10 November, that Trump had plausibly alleged that the BBC damaged his reputation and knew, or should have known, that an edited clip of his speech was misleading. The judge dismissed a separate claim brought by Trump under Florida’s unfair trade practices law.

Trump is suing Britain’s publicly funded broadcaster over a BBC Panorama documentary broadcast shortly before the 2024 US presidential election, which he went on to win. He says the programme spliced together parts of a speech he gave to supporters before the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, including a section in which he told supporters to march on the Capitol and another in which he said “fight like hell”, making it appear that he directed supporters to storm the building.

What the judge decided

Judge Kuntz’s ruling does not decide whether Trump has proven his claims. It decides only that the complaint clears the early hurdle at the motion-to-dismiss stage, where a court asks whether the allegations, if proven, could amount to defamation.

In the ruling, Judge Kuntz wrote: “Here, the news entity created the story. BBC admitted as much by confirming it had edited a video to make it appear as though President Trump made a statement he never made.” The judge also found that Trump had adequately alleged actual damages.

Whether Trump can prove those claims and establish that he sustained damages is left for a later stage of the case, either at summary judgment or at trial.

BBC apology and denial of liability

The BBC has previously admitted that the edits were misleading and apologised to Trump, but it denies being liable for defamation. The broadcaster did not immediately respond to a request for comment after the ruling.

Trump welcomed the decision on social media, calling it “a huge victory” against the BBC.

The case is one of several lawsuits Trump has filed against news organisations as part of a wider pressure campaign against coverage he dislikes, according to Reuters. His lawsuit against the BBC was filed in December in federal court in Florida. The defamation claim will now proceed through the legal process.

Sources: Devdiscourse (Reuters) and Reason (Volokh Conspiracy).