The British Broadcasting Corp. is urging a federal judge to throw out a libel lawsuit Donald Trump filed last year accusing the network of airing a documentary that distorted his remarks on Jan. 6, 2021 to make it sound like he explicitly urged his supporters to launch a violent assault on the Capitol.
In a motion filed Monday with Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based U.S. District Judge Roy Altman, lawyers for the BBC contend that the court there lacks jurisdiction over the London-based broadcaster because it did not distribute the program in the U.S. and the subsidiaries involved don’t operate in Florida.
The BBC’s attorneys also contend that by the time the documentary was released in October 2024, publicity about Trump’s actions on the day of the Capitol riot was so widespread that the brief sequence in the film couldn’t have had much impact.
“When the Documentary aired, Plaintiff had already been charged by a grand jury on four counts stemming from his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election,” BBC lawyer Charles Tobin wrote. “Given the many allegations prior to the Documentary’s release regarding
Plaintiff’s January 6 speech — and that shortly after its release, the President won reelection and carried Florida by a wide margin — Plaintiff cannot plausibly claim that the Documentary harmed his reputation.”
The BBC’s legal pleading acknowledges, but largely downplays, the network’s public apology to Trump last year as he threatened legal action over the program. The BBC conceded that the documentary “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.”
Nevertheless, the storied British TV and radio outlet has insisted that the editing of the speech doesn’t translate into a viable lawsuit.
“We have said throughout we will robustly defend the case against us. Put simply — the documentary was never aired in Florida — or the U.S. It wasn’t available to watch in the U.S. on iPlayer, online or any other streaming platforms including BritBox and BBC Select,” a network spokesperson said Monday. “We have therefore challenged jurisdiction of the Florida court and filed a motion to dismiss the president’s claim.”
A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team waved off the broadcaster’s submission to Altman.
“The BBC is liable to President Trump for intentionally and maliciously defaming him by distorting and manipulating his speech. No amount of attempted legal maneuvers can change that fact,” the spokesperson said. “President Trump will continue to hold accountable the BBC and all those who traffic in fake news.”
Trump’s legal team has said the lawsuit seeks more than $10 billion in damages, although paperwork accompanying the filing put the figure at $5 billion.
Last month, Altman, a Trump appointee, rejected the BBC’s motion to stave off fact-finding in the case until the network’s motion to throw out the lawsuit is resolved.
The U.S. law firm representing the BBC in the case, Ballard Spahr, also represents numerous other news organizations, including POLITICO.
