Donald Trump set for $10bn courtroom showdown with BBC

Donald Trump and the BBC are set for a dramatic courtroom showdown after the US president was granted permission to sue the corporation for $10bn (£7.5bn).

Mr Trump is seeking damages from the corporation over claims it edited a speech in a documentary to give the impression the US president had encouraged his supporters to storm the Capitol building in 2021.

The corporation had filed a motion to delay the case but, in a major blow to the corporation, a judge in Florida ordered on Thursday that the lawsuit will go to trial in February 2027 and last two weeks.

A BBC spokesperson said: “As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case. We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”

The episode of the BBC show, which was broadcast just a week before the 2024 US election results, sparked a crisis at the broadcaster.

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The programme, Trump: A Second Chance?, spliced two distinct clips together from January 6 2021, creating the impression that Mr Trump had instructed the crowd: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol … and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”

The BBC later admitted it had edited two separate parts of Mr Trump’s speech together, creating a misleading impression by not telling viewers that the clips had been merged.

After a huge furore over the issue, the corporation apologised for the edit, but did not offer compensation and insisted it did not have a legal case to answer. BBC chair Samir Shah said it had been an “error of judgement”.

But Mr Trump’s lawyers claim the clip was defamatory and that the corporation had “intentionally and maliciously sought to fully mislead its viewers around the world”. Critics argue that the edit omitted a crucial segment where Mr Trump urged his supporters to demonstrate peacefully.

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It came after the leak of a document written by Michael Prescott, the former independent external adviser to the BBC’s editorial guidelines and standards committee, which made accusations of several instances of bias, including the doctored Panorama episode.

The fallout contributed to Tim Davie, the BBC director-general, and Deborah Turness, BBC News’s chief executive, leaving their roles. Mr Davie said there had “been some mistakes made” and he had to “take ultimate responsibility”.

Mr Trump welcomed the BBC resignations and claimed there had been an attempt to “step on the scales of a presidential election”, adding: “What a terrible thing for Democracy!”

Mr Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed the clip was “purposefully dishonestly, selectively edited by the BBC”. She claimed it was “further evidence that they are total, 100 per cent fake news that should no longer be worth the time on the television screens of the great people of the United Kingdom”.

The US president then sent an ultimatum to the BBC demanding it retract “false” and “defamatory” statements made about him in the documentary, or face a billion-dollar legal action.

The BBC filed a motion to dismiss, claiming the Florida court lacks “personal jurisdiction” over the corporation, the court venue is “improper” and that Mr Trump has “failed to state a claim”, according to court documents.

The corporation argued it did not create, produce or broadcast the documentary in Florida and that Mr Trump’s claim that the documentary was available in the US on streaming service BritBox is not true.

But court documents from the US District Court Southern District of Florida show judge Roy K Altman set a trial date of February 15 next year.

The claim seeks $5billion in damages for defamation and $5billion for unfair trade practices.

Mr Trump has a history of suing news organisations in the US and is engaged in legal action with The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.