Last December, Trump sued the BBC and subsidiaries BBC Studios Productions and BBC Studios Distribution over the 2024 Panorama episode.
Trump’s lawsuit – filed in Florida – accuses the BBC of “intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring” the speech he gave outside the Capitol on 6 January 2021.
The BBC has apologised for an editing error that gave “the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action”.
However, the BBC has asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the programme doesn’t meet the legal criteria for defamation and wasn’t made available on its US platforms.
Last month, Trump’s lawyers admitted they had no evidence that the documentary was available in the US on the BBC’s BritBox subscription service, as they had originally claimed, or on BBC.com, BBC Select or through US broadcasters.
Trump also recently agreed to drop the BBC’s commercial arm BBC Studios from his lawsuit, after the BBC argued the company had “no role in creating or producing the documentary”.
Earlier this month, the judge in the case granted Trump’s request for a delay in him handing over a financial documents to the broadcaster as part of the suit.
The BBC has asked for some of Trump’s financial records in relation to his argument that the documentary damaged the president’s business interests.
The president’s legal team said disclosure of the financial records would cause him “irreparable harm”.
A trial date in February 2027 has been scheduled, should the case progress.
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