Donald Trump’s multi-billion-dollar lawsuit against the BBC has been set to proceed to trial. On Wednesday, a US Judge set a tentative date for the 2027 trial, which will reportedly last for two weeks.
Donald Trump’s lawsuit against BBC moves to trial
According to recent court documents, Donald Trump‘s $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC is scheduled to go to trial in 2027. The announcement comes after Judge Roy K. Altman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida rejected the BBC’s request to delay the proceedings.
Altman has set a provisional trial start date of February 15, 2027. It will take place in Miami and will continue for two weeks. A BBC spokesperson stated, “As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case.” They added, “We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”
Trump filed a lawsuit against the BBC for defamation over how they edited his January 6, 2021, speech. A 2024 Panorama episode allegedly edited together two different sections of the speech, which the President claims gave the impression that he encouraged people to storm the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump is now seeking $5 billion in damages for defamation and $5 billion for unfair trade practices.
The Panorama edit uses two segments of Trump’s speech, originally 50 minutes apart, and merges them. The new edit shows Trump saying, “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 had previously apologized for the edit and admitted that the spliced segments of the speech created a “mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action”. However, they denied that the edits were defamatory.
