A US judge has allowed President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC to proceed, dealing a blow to the national broadcaster.
The U.S. president’s civil lawsuit alleges that the British broadcaster deceptively edited the January 6 documentary and that the broadcaster acted in bad faith to damage the president’s reputation.
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Jeffrey T. Kuntz, a President Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Florida, issued a 40-page ruling Tuesday that partially denied the British broadcaster’s motion to dismiss the case.
He ruled that Mr. Trump’s claims that he knew or should have known that the broadcaster harmed his reputation and that the clip was misleading were “plausible claims,” meaning they were reliable. Kuntz’s decision moves the case forward, but it does not prove whether Trump has proven those claims.
The president’s lawsuit against the BBC centers on a documentary titled Trump: A Second Chance? that aired in October 2024.
It includes a clip of Trump’s speech to his supporters as lawmakers voted to certify former President Joe Biden’s victory on January 6, 2021, in which he allegedly directed attendees to storm the Capitol, the seat of Congress.
The president claimed that the documentary was selectively edited, with two separate video and audio clips of the same speech placed nearly 55 minutes apart in order, and that the footage was edited to appear as if the president was directly calling for violence.
The two selected clips included one section in which he calls on his supporters to march to the Capitol, and another in which he tells them to “fight like hell.”
President Trump has maintained that he never directed his supporters to use violence to prevent a peaceful transition of power, but he has falsely claimed for years that voter fraud cost him his 2020 campaign.
Trump also said that an edited portion of his speech omitted a call for peaceful protests.
The BBC admitted its edits were misleading and apologized to Trump on November 13, 2025, a month before he filed his lawsuit. In seeking to dismiss the lawsuit, the judge rejected his request that the edits were a condensed version of the 70-minute speech.
BBC: ‘I was surprised by the decision’
However, the broadcaster continues to deny defaming the president.
In response to the ruling, a BBC spokesperson said: “We are surprised by this decision, but respect the court’s powers and are mindful of the next stage of the litigation. We remain confident in our position and will continue to respond through the appropriate legal process.”
President Trump called the ruling a “huge victory against the fake news BBC” in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday.
The president, who skipped a scheduled October deposition in the run-up to his midterm election campaign, faces a court-ordered December 11 deposition deadline or risks his defamation suit against the BBC being thrown out.
The first suit, filed in December 2025 in federal court in Miami, sought at least $5 billion in damages each for defamation and alleged violations of the Florida Deception and Unfair Trade Act. A judge dismissed the second claim on Tuesday.
The controversy over an edited speech featured on the BBC’s Panorama program just before the 2024 presidential election has triggered a public relations crisis at the broadcaster and led to the resignation of two top executives.
The BBC lawsuit is one of several privately filed by President Trump against news organizations as part of a broader pressure campaign targeting coverage he dislikes.
His lawyers have pursued staggering financial penalties against major news organizations and publishers across multiple jurisdictions.
The president is currently embroiled in a new $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal, which the paper refiled in May after being previously dismissed. A judge dismissed the refiled lawsuit on October 31, and Trump is appealing. A separate defamation lawsuit seeks $15 billion in damages from The New York Times and book publisher Penguin Random House.
In September, the president also took steps to ban CNN, MS Now, and Politico from the White House and its press corps. That blanket ban was later blocked by a federal judge, but news organizations continue to fight continued bans from Air Force One and the Oval Office.
