Dismiss ?

The BBC's US lawyer in the matter of Trump v BBC, Charles D Tobin, has gone in hard ball with a raft of documents for the consideration of Florida judge Roy K Altman, saying "Because the Court lacks personal jurisdiction over Defendants – and the Complaint fails to plead valid claims – the Court should dismiss this case with prejudice".  "With prejudice" means no second go at claiming the same alleged defamation. 

The lack of personal jurisdiction, first.  Trump's lawyers aimed at multiple defendants - the British Broadcasting Corporation a.k.a BBC; BBC Studios Distribution Ltd; and BBC Studios Production Ltd. A statement from Martin Freeman COO of BBC Studios Production Ltd makes it clear they had nothing to do with the creation of the offending Panorama; a statement from Director of Digital Distribution Richard Cooper says there was no BBC channel offering access to the programme in  Florida. For the public service component, Director of News Content Richard Burgess explains that BBC offices in Coral Gables are not involved, being home largely to around 25 employees of a separate company, BBC News USA, running BBC Mundo, the Latin American language 'bit' of the World Service. 

The Trump charge claims the BBC filmed part of the Panorama documentary at Mar-A-Lago.  Executive Producer Leo Telling says those clips were licenced from other news organisations or picked up on the web. Mr Telling looks like being a key witness if it ever gets to trial... 

So now Trump's lawyers will have to produce evidence that a number of people in Florida actually saw the Panorama AND they were so influenced that it made them cut donations to The Donald and/or voted for someone else as a consequence.   Trump won Florida in 2024 with 6,110,125 votes, up from 5,668,731 in 2020.