In Setback to BBC, Florida Judge Sets Trial Date for Trump’s Defamation Case

The British Broadcasting Corporation has been dealt a setback in its fight against President Trump’s defamation lawsuit in Florida, where a judge has scheduled the trial to begin in February 2027.Mr. Trump sued the BBC for $10 billion after a dossier exposed the network’s deceptive editing of his January 6 speech, which aired in a 2024 “Panorama” episode. The dossier led to the resignation of the BBC’s director general and its head of news.On Wednesday, a U.S. district court judge, Roy Altman, rejected the BBC’s motion to stay discovery until the court ruled on its motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Judge Altman said he denied the motion to stay discovery because the “forthcoming motion to dismiss … hasn’t even been filed.”“Without the benefit of Plaintiff’s responses and defenses to the issues presented in the motions, the Court cannot properly take a ‘preliminary peek’ at the viability of the motion [to dismiss],” he said. He added that after a “preliminary review” of the arguments, he “can’t say with certainty that President Trump’s claims are unmeritorious or that any motion to dismiss would dispose of the complaint ‘in its entirety with prejudice.’”A spokesman for the BBC said in a statement, “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 spokesman said.The BBC plans to file its motion to dismiss the case by March 17.Mr. Trump’s lawsuit was sparked by an internal BBC report that found that the editors of a “Panorama” documentary spliced together two sections of the president’s speech, which were actually roughly 50 minutes apart, to make it appear as though he stated, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.” The edited version also removed his call for his supporters to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”The call for his supporters to behave “peacefully and patriotically” was an important part of Mr. Trump’s defense against the accusation that he had encouraged violence.The BBC has apologized to the president for the editing and has promised that it will not rebroadcast the “Panorama” episode. But it insists that there is “no basis for a defamation case,” and has said it is “determined to fight” the lawsuit.It is expected to argue that the Florida court lacks “personal jurisdiction” over it, and that Mr. Trump “failed to state a claim.”

In Setback to BBC, Florida Judge Sets Trial Date for Trump’s Defamation Case

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