BBC seeks dismissal of $10bn Trump lawsuit over Panorama ‘fight like hell’ clip

The BBC will take legal steps to have Donald Trump’s $10bn defamation lawsuit over a Panorama programme edit dismissed, court documents have shown.Panorama faced criticism in 2025, over an episode broadcast in 2024, for giving the impression the US president had encouraged his supporters to storm the Capitol building in 2021.The spliced clips in the edition of Panorama suggested that Trump told the crowd: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you, and we fight. We fight like hell.”The words were taken from sections of his speech almost an hour apart.The BBC will file a motion to dismiss, claiming the Florida court lacks “personal jurisdiction” over them, the court venue is “improper” and that Trump has “failed to state a claim”, documents filed on Monday evening revealed.The corporation will argue that it did not create, produce or broadcast the documentary in Florida and that Trump’s claim that the documentary was available in the US on streaming service BritBox is not true.“Simply clicking on the link that plaintiff cites for this point shows it is not on BritBox,” the broadcaster’s lawyers said in court documents.It will also claim the president has failed to “plausibly allege” the BBC published the documentary with “actual malice”, which public officials are required to show when filing suit for defamation in the US.The broadcaster has asked the court “to stay all other discovery” – the pre-trial process in which parties gather information – pending the decision on the motion.In asking for discovery to be delayed, lawyers for the BBC said: “The plaintiff will seek broad, objectionable discovery on the merits, implicating the BBC’s entire scope of coverage of Donald J Trump over the past decade or more and claiming injury to his entire business and political profiles.”A 2027 trial date has been proposed should the case continue.The BBC was approached for comment.Trump is seeking up to $10bn (£7.5bn) in damages in response to the editing of the speech, with his lawyers claiming it was “false and defamatory”.