President Donald Trump scored a victory in court Tuesday as a judge ruled that his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) can proceed.
“A Huge Victory against Fake News BBC, a terrible abuser of the truth, just handed down by highly respected District Court Judge, Jeffrey T. Kuntz, of the Southern District of Florida,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump continued, “In his powerful 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.’ We will continue fighting against, and defeating, all of those who try to deceive the American People!”
JUDGE LIMITS BBC FROM RELITIGATING JAN 6 IN TRUMP LAWSUIT OVER MISLEADING DOCUMENTARY EDIT
In his ruling, Kuntz criticized the BBC over how it edited the 2024 “Panorama” documentary at the center of the lawsuit, suggesting the broadcaster “knew or should have known that the segment they were creating would not and could not have been a truthful statement.”
“This was not trimming around the edges but creating something different than what was stated in the speech. BBC also had the entire speech available to them for nearly three years by the time of the Documentary,” the filing read.
TRUMP WINS PERMISSION TO FILE AMENDED COMPLAINT IN $10B DEFAMATION LAWSUIT AGAINST BBC
Kuntz did, however, dismiss Trump’s second count in the lawsuit alleging the BBC documentary violated the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (FDUTPA), finding that the documentary did not qualify as “commercial speech” under the law.
The judge gave the BBC until Dec. 1 to respond to the remaining defamation claim.
A BBC spokesperson said the broadcaster was surprised by the ruling but respected the court’s authority and remained confident in its legal position.
“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. It would be inappropriate to comment further while proceedings are ongoing,” the BBC spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC late last year for its 2024 “Panorama” documentary that distorted his remarks to supporters on Jan. 6, 2021. Critics claim the documentary was misleading because it omitted Trump’s call for supporters to protest peacefully, splicing together separate portions of a lengthy address to give a wrong impression.
“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol. And I’ll be there with you. And we fight — we fight like hell,” the documentary showed Trump saying.
In reality, Trump said, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol. And we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them, because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”
It wasn’t until 54 minutes later that Trump called on his supporters to “fight like hell” for election integrity.
The BBC previously apologized for the misleading edit and said it had removed the program from its platforms. Despite the apology, the broadcaster has maintained that the edit does not constitute defamation.
The controversy led to the resignations of then-BBC News CEO Deborah Turness and then-BBC Director-General Tim Davie.
While Tuesday’s ruling allows Trump’s defamation claim to proceed, a magistrate judge previously ruled in the BBC’s favor in October, ordering Trump to give a deposition by Dec. 11 unless the discovery deadline is extended beyond Dec. 18.
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Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report.
