Trump-appointed judge Jeffrey T Kuntz partially denies British broadcaster’s motion to dismiss over edit
Federal judge Jeffrey T Kuntz ruled on Tuesday that Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the BBC can proceed, denying in part the British broadcaster’s motion to dismiss the case. The president’s $10bn defamation lawsuit stems from the BBC’s splicing together of disparate comments he made before the 6 January US Capitol insurrection, as rendered in a Panorama documentary called Trump: A Second Chance.
“Accepting the allegations in the complaint as true, the Court finds Trump plausibly pled damages where Trump alleges a defamatory documentary released toward the election caused reputational harm,” the Trump-appointed Florida district court judge wrote. “It would be difficult for the Court to accept a different framing without completely negating the significance and fragility of political elections.”
The judge noted the significance of the documentary’s editing decision, which spliced together comments made by Trump that were nearly 55 minutes apart, something the BBC has apologized for.
“On its face, the editing may independently establish the plausibility of actual malice,” he wrote. “BBC tries to frame this editing as ordinary editing done to condense a seventy-minute-long speech into twelve seconds. But the Court is not persuaded.”
The judge continued: “Editing is often required. However, given the time disparity between the two statements, the distance itself tends toward a plausible inference that BBC knew or should have known that the segment they were creating would not and could not have been a truthful statement. This was not trimming around the edges but creating something different than what was stated in the speech.”
The judge noted past errors in the broadcaster’s coverage and wrote that “such examples can be said to be probative of BBC’s state of mind as it pertains to recklessness in light of BBC’s non-action toward false statements about Trump. Thus, Trump paints a picture that demonstrates the BBC has a record of allowing the publication of false statements in their portrayal of Trump.”
The judge also wrote that “Trump’s allegations regarding BBC’s departure from journalistic standards are more than enough to plausibly alleged more than mere negligence”.
The BBC released a statement: “We are surprised by this decision but respect the Court’s authority and note the case will now proceed to the next stage. We remain confident in our position and will continue to respond through the proper legal process.”
Trump heralded the ruling on Truth Social, calling it a “huge victory”. “We will continue fighting against, and defeating, all of those who try to deceive the American People!” Trump said.
While the judge determined that Trump had “sufficiently pleaded” that the BBC acted with actual malice, the legal standard for a public figure to win a defamation case, he will have to actually prove they did so at trial.
The judge also dismissed Trump’s claim that the BBC violated Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
And the judge determined that the president will have to prove that he suffered “actual damages” from the airing of the document, which was not broadcast in Florida.
In late October, a Florida magistrate judge ruled that Trump will have to sit for a deposition conducted by lawyers for the BBC by 11 December or else he could be hit with sanctions.