President Donald Trump’s attempt to keep his $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC in Florida now rests partly on 34 alleged play-starts of a geoblocked documentary by 10 users employing virtual private networks (VPNs).
The British broadcaster asked a federal judge Monday to dismiss Trump’s amended complaint, arguing that unauthorized attempts to circumvent its geographic restrictions cannot give the Florida court jurisdiction over a program the BBC never distributed or licensed for viewing in the United States.
Trump’s amended complaint alleges that the documentary was played 34 times in Florida. But the BBC characterized those play-starts—just 0.006% of 570,000 successful requests for the documentary—as unconfirmed and unauthorized, saying they did not establish that the broadcaster targeted Florida viewers.
The broadcaster warned that allowing efforts to circumvent geographic restrictions to establish jurisdiction could create a sweeping precedent. It argued that foreign companies could be forced to defend lawsuits in states where their content was never offered simply because someone attempted to access it through a VPN.
No court has established jurisdiction on that basis, the BBC argued, warning that doing so could have “massive implications for foreign companies with online presences.”
“The formerly respected and now disgraced BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally, maliciously and deceptively doctoring his speech in a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 Presidential Election,” a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said in a statement the TheWrap Monday. “The BBC has a long pattern of deceiving its audience in coverage of President Trump, all in service of its own leftist political agenda. President Trump’s powerhouse lawsuit is holding the BBC accountable for its defamation and reckless election interference just as he has held other fake news mainstream media responsible for their wrongdoing.”
The jurisdictional dispute is the latest development in a case that has expanded into fights over Trump’s finances, the scope of his claimed damages and proposed subpoenas for members of his family.
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Trump sued the BBC in December, alleging that the documentary defamed him by combining excerpts from different portions of his Jan. 6, 2021, speech.
The edit showed Trump telling supporters, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol … and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell,” without making clear that the remarks were delivered more than 50 minutes apart. It also omitted a portion in which Trump said supporters should make their voices heard “peacefully and patriotically.”
The BBC acknowledged that the edit created the mistaken impression that Trump had made a direct call for violent action. It apologized but denied that the mistake amounted to defamation. The documentary was pulled from the broadcaster’s streaming platforms and will not be rebroadcast.
BBC Director General Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness resigned amid the controversy.
Trump is seeking $5 billion for defamation and another $5 billion under Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. He alleges that the documentary, which aired shortly before the 2024 election, was intended to damage him and influence the election’s outcome.
The BBC initially moved to dismiss the lawsuit in March, arguing that the Florida court lacked jurisdiction because the documentary was not distributed in the United States. Trump subsequently amended his complaint to include the allegations about VPN viewing.
Beyond jurisdiction, the BBC maintained Monday that the revised complaint still fails to establish actual malice or reputational harm. The broadcaster noted that Trump won reelection and carried Florida after the documentary aired. It also argued that portions of the program constituted protected opinion.
Meanwhile, the case has continued through discovery. A federal judge recently paused an order requiring Trump to produce financial records while considering his effort to drop business-related claims and seek damages based solely on alleged reputational harm.
Trump has also dismissed his claims against two BBC commercial and production entities, leaving the British Broadcasting Corporation as the remaining defendant.
The BBC has separately sought testimony and records from Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner concerning the preparation of Trump’s Jan. 6 speech and how his remarks could reasonably have been understood.
The BBC asked the court to dismiss the amended complaint with prejudice and requested a one-hour hearing on its motion. The case is scheduled for a two-week trial in February 2027 unless it is dismissed first.
“We have said throughout we will robustly defend the case against us,” a BBC spokesperson told TheWrap in a statement on Monday. “The documentary was never aired anywhere in the US, including the state of Florida. We are continuing to challenge the jurisdiction of the Florida court to hear this claim, and we have filed a Motion to Dismiss the President’s recently amended claim.”
