U.S. President Donald Trump has dropped part of his $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC, new court documents reveal.
Last year, Trump sued the British broadcaster over claims that a BBC Panorama documentary was doctored to make it appear as though Trump, during his Jan. 6, 2021 speech outside the White House, had urged his followers to attack the Capitol. The 33-page document, brought in the U.S. District Court Southern District of Florida in December, alleges that theBBC made “a false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction of President Trump.”
New details have now emerged that the BBC’s commercial arm, BBC Studios, has been dropped from the suit. In the document, released by the British press on Friday, it reads: “All claims in this action asserted against the Studios Defendants are hereby dismissed with prejudice, with each party to bear its own costs and attorney’s fees… President Trump shall continue prosecuting his causes of action against Defendant British Broadcasting Corporation.”
Reports have also stated that the U.S. government isconsidering joining the litigation. According to The Telegraph, it means that documents requested by the BBC, such as phone records or diary entries, could then be withheld on the grounds of executive privilege or risks to national security.
When approached for comment, a BBC rep redirected The Hollywood Reporter to a recent BBC filing in Florida, dated June 25, which states that the documentary was not displayed in the U.S. on BritBox, BBC.com, BBC Select, NPR, PBS or through any other U.S. broadcaster, contrary to the allegations of the complaint.
The BBC has previously issued a formal apology to President Trump over the edit, but they have rejected any need for compensation and vowed to defend the case. “While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree [that] there is a basis for a defamation claim,” a spokesperson said to THR late last year.
All of this came about when a leaked BBC memo from an independent advisor, a man named Michael Prescott, concluded that the docTrump: A Second Chance?“seemed to be taking a distinctly anti-Trump stance.”
In the speech, Trump said: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.” However, in thePanoramaedit, he was shown 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 two clips stitched together were, in actuality, more than 50 minutes apart.