A federal judge in Florida denied a motion to dismiss President Trump’s defamation lawsuit against the BBC, allowing the case to proceed to a potential jury trial.

“A Huge Victory against Fake News BBC, a terrible abuser of the truth, just handed down by highly respected District Court Judge, Jeffrey T. Kuntz, of the Southern District of Florida,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“In his powerful ruling, Judge Kuntz wrote, ‘Here, the news entity created the story. BBC admitted as much by confirming it had edited a video to make it appear as though President Trump made a statement he never made.’ We will continue fighting against, and defeating, all of those who try to deceive the American People!” he continued.

Fox News shared further:

In his ruling, Kuntz criticized the BBC over how it edited the 2024 “Panorama” documentary at the center of the lawsuit, suggesting the broadcaster “knew or should have known that the segment they were creating would not and could not have been a truthful statement.”

“This was not trimming around the edges but creating something different than what was stated in the speech. BBC also had the entire speech available to them for nearly three years by the time of the Documentary,” the filing read.

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Kuntz did, however, dismiss Trump’s second count in the lawsuit alleging the BBC documentary violated the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (FDUTPA), finding that the documentary did not qualify as “commercial speech” under the law.

The judge gave the BBC until Dec. 1 to respond to the remaining defamation claim.

A BBC spokesperson said the broadcaster was surprised by the ruling but respected the court’s authority and remained confident in its legal position.

“BBC tries to frame this editing as ordinary editing done to condense a 70-minute-long speech into 12 seconds,” the judge wrote, according to The New York Times.

“But the court is not persuaded,” he added.

Trump faces a December 11 court deadline to sit for a deposition in the case.

Judge Orders President Trump To Sit For Deposition In $10 Billion Lawsuit

More from The New York Times:

Addressing Mr. Trump’s broader claim that the BBC acted with “actual malice,” the legal standard required for a successful defamation claim by a public figure, Judge Kuntz wrote that “this does not prove BBC acted with actual malice. But it does make it plausible.”

The judge said that whether Mr. Trump can prove his claims at trial would be “left for another day.”

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