BBC refuses to back down from $10 billion Trump shakedown, files motion to dismiss

Donald Trump is on a mission to destroy the British Broadcasting Corporation. The BBC has been firmly in Trump’s firing line after it aired an episode of its documentary show Panorama that edited Trump’s notorious Jan. 6 speech to give the impression he ordered his supporters to storm the Capitol building.

The clip indicated 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 problem was that the words were taken from parts of the speech almost an hour apart.

When this was revealed, Trump flipped his lid and launched a Florida lawsuit demanding a colossal $10 billion from the BBC in damages. For reference, the BBC’s total revenue is about $7 billion per year, and its cash reserves are around $700 million. Even if the company sold everything it owned, it still wouldn’t come close to being able to pay Trump $10 billion.

So, ultimately, Trump is trying to kill the BBC altogether, with its death a wonderful opportunity for right-wing media to swoop in and take its place. Now the BBC is fighting back, requesting that Trump’s lawsuit be thrown out of court.

BBC lawyers are arguing that October Films – not the BBC – made the documentary, that they didn’t broadcast it in Florida, and that Trump’s lawyers’ claim it’s available on the streaming service Britbox is simply not true: “Simply clicking on the link that plaintiff cites for this point shows it is not on BritBox”. Furthermore, they counter that it’s impossible to prove the Trump claim that the documentary was created with “actual malice”.

Can they beat him?

It’s worth noting that the BBC has already acknowledged the editing was unfair and has apologized for Trump, but he clearly wants to see them hanged, drawn and quartered – as well as that any money the BBC has be transferred directly to him as damages.

It’s worth underlining that Trump’s lawyers are probably out for a settlement on this one and don’t want it to go to trial. As with American broadcasters like Paramount and ABC, he’s presumably hoping that he’ll get a relatively smaller multimillion-dollar payout from the BBC rather than his outrageous $10 billion demand.

But it seems the BBC isn’t going to roll over and write him a check, so we may yet get to see one of these cases hit a courtroom. If so, expect fireworks!