The BBC is trying to convince a federal judge to throw out President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the network for doctoring video of the speech he gave at the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021.
In a filing, the BBC argues that the Florida court has no authority over them because they are a United Kingdom company and the film was produced in London for a U.K. audience. It was part of a documentary about Trump’s re-election campaign.
The filing emphasizes that the documentary only included about three minutes of the speech with a 12-second edited clip of the event. The network points out that it later issued a retraction and an apology for “unintentionally” giving the “mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action” due to an “error of judgement” during the editing process.
The motion further claims that Trump cannot show that the deceptively edited video harmed him, noting that he won the 2024 election a week after the film aired and won Florida with 56.1 percent of the vote.
The BBC also argues that the president’s lawsuit fails to provide a valid legal claim for defamation or consumer-protection violations under Florida’s statute. The two BBC Studios companies had “no role in the creation or production of this Documentary, and did not broadcast it in the U.S.”
On the defamation allegation, the BBC insists that Trump has not properly alleged actual malice or specific damages and that the film features opinions and commentary that is both positive and negative about the president.
A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team told Politico that the network “is liable to President Trump for intentionally and maliciously defaming him by distorting and manipulating his speech” and that “No amount of attempted legal maneuvers can change that fact.”
The lawsuit came after it was revealed that the BBC spliced together separate parts of Trump’s speech at the Capitol to make it sound as if he urged supporters to march to the building and riot. The video omitted the part where he clearly tells his supporters to protest “peacefully” at the building.
🚨🇬🇧🇺🇸 “We Fight - we Fight like Hell”
— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) November 3, 2025
Holy Crap - It’s just been revealed that Fake News Legacy Media The BBC doctored these 2 Trump Clips from Jan 6th to completely change the reality of the situation unbeknownst to their viewers ‼️ pic.twitter.com/p1CySvfHHX
The network claimed the edit was a mistake because it actually believes we are gullible enough to buy that line of folderol. The revelation brought about an enormous backlash and several BBC executives resigned over the issue.
🔴 EXCLUSIVE: The BBC is accused of editing a Trump speech to make him seem to back the Capitol riot.
— 𝐑𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐚 (@LoyalYashFan) November 9, 2025
A whistleblower memo says Panorama “completely misled” viewers by cutting key lines pic.twitter.com/jrmMeEoc5O
It’s going to be difficult to argue that the editing was accidental — unless we assume that those who did the editing have IQs below room temperature. This is just like the “fine people” hoax when CNN deliberately edited Trump’s comments to make it appear as if he referred to Nazis and white nationalists as “fine people” after the Charlottesville rally that ended in the death of a leftist counterprotester. It is a clear example of how media will endeavor to deceive the public by leaving out important context to score political points against their opponents.