Trump wins round against BBC: federal judge lets his $10 billion defamation suit over the doctored Jan. 6 speech go ahead

A federal judge in Florida ruled Tuesday that President Trump's $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC can go forward, Fox News reports, and his ruling did not go easy on the British broadcaster.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey T. Kuntz wrote that the BBC "knew or should have known" that the segment in its 2024 "Panorama" documentary "would not and could not have been a truthful statement." He added: "This was not trimming around the edges but creating something different than what was stated in the speech."

The documentary spliced together lines from Trump's Jan. 6, 2021, speech that were spoken about 54 minutes apart, so he appeared to say, "We're going to walk down to the Capitol. And I'll be there with you. And we fight — we fight like hell." The edit left out his call for supporters to protest peacefully. The BBC apologized and pulled the program, and the scandal forced out its director-general, Tim Davie, and its news chief, Deborah Turness. The network still says the edit was not defamation.

"A Huge Victory against Fake News BBC, a terrible abuser of the truth," Trump posted on Truth Social, quoting the judge: "Here, the news entity created the story."

Kuntz threw out a second claim under Florida's deceptive trade practices law. The BBC has until Dec. 1 to answer the defamation count. A spokesperson said the network was "surprised by this decision" but remains confident in its position.