A US judge has rejected the BBC’s request to stay discovery in US President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit. According to court documents seen by Reuters on Tuesday, the case involves a montage of a speech that Trump says falsely gave the impression that he had ordered his supporters to attack the US Capitol.
President Trump has accused the British public broadcaster of defaming him by jointly editing parts of a January 6, 2021 speech, including a part where he told his supporters to march on the Capitol and another where he said “fight like hell.” He also claimed that the video omitted a long section in which he called for a peaceful protest.
POTUS claimed the BBC “put words in my mouth” by splicing separate parts of his speech in a Panorama documentary examining the Capitol riots, saying it was “deliberately, maliciously and fraudulently” done by the broadcaster.
In addition, the judge set a two-week trial date for February 2027 in a separate order, according to the agency report.
What did Trump claim?
Trump’s lawsuit also alleges that the BBC not only defamed him, but also violated a Florida law that prohibits deceptive and unfair business practices. The US leader is seeking at least $5 billion in damages for each of the two counts of the lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Roy Altman on Wednesday denied the British broadcaster’s request to suspend the merits discovery phase, during which both sides can gather evidence from other parties in the lawsuit, court documents showed.
The judge said the BBC’s application was premature and had not shown it would be prejudiced if the stay was not granted, the agency said.
The broadcaster previously said it would defend the case and also seek to have the case dismissed, saying the court lacked jurisdiction because it did not air the program in Florida and that the president could not prove damages because he was re-elected after the video was broadcast to the public.
Trump’s lawsuit marked a dramatic escalation in the dispute, which also saw the resignations of Tim Davie, the BBC’s former director-general, and Deborah Turnes, who was head of BBC News.