The BBC will take legal steps to have United States President Donald Trump’s $US10 billion ($NZ17.3b) defamation lawsuit over a Panorama programme edit dismissed, court documents have shown.
Panorama was criticised late last year over an episode broadcast in 2024, for giving the impression the US president had encouraged his supporters to storm the US Capitol building in 2021.
In the episode, a clip from Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021, was spliced to show him saying, "we’re going to walk down to the Capitol ... and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell".
Trump is seeking up to $US10b in damages in response to the editing of the speech, his lawyers claiming it was "false and defamatory".
The BBC will file a motion to dismiss, claiming the Florida court lacks "personal jurisdiction" over the BBC, the court venue is "improper" and that Trump has "failed to state a claim", documents filed yesterday revealed. — BPA
