A federal judge last week drew a sharp line around President Donald Trump's $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC, ruling the broadcaster can probe how Trump's Jan.6, 2021, speech was understood by the public — but cannot relitigate the riot at the U.S.
Capitol itself.The ruling was handed down by U.S.Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett as the BBC faces continued scrutiny over a 2024 "Panorama" documentary about Trump’s speech on Jan.
6.The documentary — titled "Trump: A Second Chance?" — was subsequently labeled as misleading by critics who noticed it omitted Trump’s call for supporters to protest peacefully at the Capitol.The documentary stitched together remarks Trump made nearly an hour apart during his address that made it appear as if he had told his supporters to "fight like hell" down at the Capitol — the comments were actually out of context — shortly before the Capitol riot that day. "All of the impressions that were received by President Trump’s statements on Jan 6 are at issue," Lett said at the hearing, according to reports.
"The full relitigation of Jan.6 is not at issue."TRUMP, BBC AGREE ON MEDIATOR FOR $10 BILLION LAWSUIT OVER JAN 6 DOCUMENTARY EDITING CONTROVERSYPresident Donald Trump.
(AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)A source close to Trump's legal team, which has accused the BBC of a "fishing expedition," said the judge's decision on that specific item was significant."It's important because this case is about a very limited splicing that consisted of nine seconds of a more than 50-minute speech and, rather than focus just on that, the BBC is trying to distract the judge, ultimately the jurors in this case, from that very limited scenario, and what they're trying to do is expand the scope of this case to litigate January 6 simply to take the attention off of them for their own wrongful conduct," the source told Fox News Digital."And so when the judge made that determination that that's not going to happen, that eliminated the...