Donald Trump’s multi-billion dollar lawsuit against the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) has been given a trial date. The US President is suing the BBC – which is primarily funded by taxpayers – over an episode of Panorama, a current affairs documentary programme which he claims was defamatory.
Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the BBC will go to trial in 2027
Trump’s lawsuit against the BBC is scheduled to go to trial in February 2027, according to court documents. The trial is scheduled to last two weeks and will take place in Miami, Florida.
Confirmation of the trial date comes after a Florida judge rejected the BBC’s application to delay the process of discovery in the case. Nonetheless, the BBC has defended its position. “As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case, ” a spokesperson for the BBC said.
The statement added: “We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”
The US President is suing the BBC for defamation over a Panorama episode titled, Trump: A Second Chance?. In the episode, which aired a week before the 2024 US Presidential election, two audio clips were spliced together from January 6, 2021. This created the impression that Trump had instructed the crowd to storm the US Capitol.
“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol … and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell,” the clips said.
Following uproar over the episode, the BBC later admitted that two separate parts of Trump’s speech had been edited together. The corporation also admitted that not telling viewers the clips had been merged was misleading. The BBC later apologized for the edit, but did not offer compensation to Trump and insisted there was no legal case to answer.
At the time, BBC chair Samir Shah said it had been an “error of judgement.”
TELL US – WILL TRUMP WIN HIS CASE AGAINST THE BBC?
