Trump welcomes 'huge victory' in $10 billion lawsuit against BBC

Donald Trump’s US$10 billion (£7.5 billion) defamation lawsuit against the BBC can proceed, a judge has ruled, while throwing out the US president’s unfair trade practices claim against the broadcaster.

Mr Trump is suing the BBC over edited video clips of a speech that made it appear he had urged supporters to storm the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.

The error, which appeared in a 2024 Panorama documentary, led to the resignations of the broadcaster’s director-general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness.

The case is one of several that Mr Trump has filed against media outlets as part of a wider pressure campaign against coverage he dislikes. He has also attempted to take legal action against ABC News, CBS News, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, among others.

In a decision made on Tuesday (local time), US District Judge Jeffrey Kuntz in Florida declined to throw out Mr Trump’s defamation claim against the BBC.

He said that Mr Trump had plausibly alleged that the broadcaster damaged his reputation and knew, or should have known, that the clip was misleading.

The judge’s ruling did not decide whether Mr Trump has proven those claims.

The president called the ruling a "huge victory" in a social media post.

"We will continue fighting against, and defeating, all of those who try to deceive the American People!" he wrote.

A BBC spokesperson said that the broadcaster was surprised by the decision, but respects the court's authority and remains confident in its position.

The broadcaster has previously admitted that the edits were misleading and apologised to Mr Trump, although it denies being liable for defamation.

Mr Trump’s lawsuit, filed in December in Florida federal court, accuses the BBC of defaming him by splicing together parts of the speech, including one section where he told supporters to march on the Capitol and another where he said "fight like hell". It omitted a section in which he called for peaceful protest.

The edited speech appeared in Panorama shortly before the 2024 presidential election, which Mr Trump won.

A leaked internal BBC memo cited the edits as evidence of potential political bias, sparking a public relations crisis for the broadcaster.