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A U.S. federal judge denied a motion on Tuesday to dismiss President Trump’s defamation case against the BBC, allowing the case to proceed.
In December 2025, Mr. Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the British Broadcasting Corporation, the U.K.’s public broadcaster, over a documentary that featured edited parts of the speech he delivered on Jan. 6, 2021, as his supporters massed around the U.S. Capitol in what would become an assault on the heart of the government.
In the lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of Florida, attorneys for Mr. Trump accuse the BBC of publishing a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory and malicious depiction” of him in an episode of the network’s “Panorama” program, which aired a week before the 2024 election.
The case alleges the BBC “intentionally and maliciously sought to fully mislead its viewers” by “splicing together” two clips of the same speech Mr. Trump gave to supporters before the riots began. The president’s legal team claims the two clips were 55 minutes apart and the edit omitted “his statement calling for peace.”
On Tuesday, Judge Jeffrey Kuntz denied the BBC’s motion to dismiss the defamation case, effectively allowing it to proceed.
“Whether President Trump can prove these claims and establish he sustained damages at summary judgment or trial is left for another day,” Kuntz wrote in his decision.
Mr. Trump hailed the decision as “A Huge Victory against Fake News BBC, a terrible abuser of the truth,” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
A spokesperson for the BBC, quoted by the network’s news division, said: “We are surprised by this decision but respect the Court’s authority and note the case will now proceed to the next stage.”
“We remain confident in our position and will continue to respond through the proper legal process,” the spokesperson added.
On Oct. 22, a federal judge in Miami said Mr. Trump must sit for a deposition with BBC lawyers by Dec. 11, warning that if he did not, he could face penalties, including possible dismissal of the lawsuit, unless the period for the president and the network to collect information in the case is extended.
Mr. Trump had been due to sit for a deposition in October, but his lawyers told the BBC in late September that he would no longer be available to answer questions, “due to other matters of national importance.”
The president has said he will be available for the deposition in the second or third week of January, according to the BBC.
In November 2025, the BBC issued an apology to the president over the editing of his speech as featured in the documentary.
“BBC Chair Samir Shah has separately sent a personal letter to the White House making clear to President Trump that he and the Corporation are sorry for the edit of the President’s speech on 6 January 2021, which featured in the programme,” the BBC Press Office said in its statement at the time.
“While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim,” the press office added.
