An American judge rejects the BBC’s request to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed against it by Trump

On Tuesday, a federal judge rejected the BBC’s request to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed against it by US President Donald Trump, demanding billions of dollars in compensation.

Trump accused the BBC of misleadingly editing a clip from a documentary to make it appear as if he was inciting violence when he asked his supporters to march to the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021.

He sought damages of at least $5 billion for both the defamation suit and another independent lawsuit, under Florida's consumer protection law.

Federal District Court Judge Jeffrey T. Koontz asked the BBC to dismiss the defamation lawsuit, but he dropped the lawsuit filed under the Florida Consumer Protection Law.

“The question of whether President Trump is able to prove these allegations and assert that he suffered damages at summary judgment or at trial is a matter for determination at a later date,” Koontz wrote in a 40-page ruling.

The BBC documentary combined two separate clips from Trump's speech on January 6, 2021, to make it appear as if he explicitly urged his supporters to storm the Capitol building.

Despite its apology for the “documentary” that prompted a number of its senior executives to resign, the BBC believes that it did not cause any real harm to Trump.

Koontz’s ruling stated: “Given the time difference between the two clips (of Trump’s speech), this time distance in itself gives rise to a logical hypothesis that (the BBC) knew, or should have known, that the clip it prepared was not and will not be truthful.”

He added: “This was not just a simple change in the details, but rather it was the production of something completely different from what was said in the speech.”

For his part, Trump, in a post on Truth Social, praised Koontz’s ruling, which he considered a “tremendous victory.”

He added: “We will continue to fight against all those who try to deceive the American people, and we will defeat them.”

Last month, an American judge set December 11 as the deadline for Trump to testify under oath in the lawsuit. In response to complaints submitted by the British network stating that the US President had evaded appearing to testify.

In its decision, the court stated that if Trump does not attend the session designated to give his statement, he risks being subjected to penalties that may include dismissal of his lawsuit.

US lawmakers called on Tuesday for more criminal investigations into the associates of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in a scathing report that held prosecutors, financial institutions and influential people responsible for allowing his abuses to continue for years.

The Epstein case haunted President Donald Trump, who had a friendship with the late financier for years, despite his denial of any knowledge of the crimes he committed. The accusations against Trump of covering up a large part of the investigations led to the outbreak of the first fundamental disagreement with his support base since his return to the White House.

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee urged the Justice Department to question or re-question key witnesses and pursue allegations against two prominent men who had ties to Epstein.

Both Philip Levin, the former mayor of Miami Beach, and Frederic Fekkai, the famous French hairdresser, deny the sexual assault allegations made by Epstein's longtime assistant, Sarah Killeen, which the commission referred to federal prosecutors in June.

The report also called for another longtime aide to Epstein, Leslie Grove, to be subjected to further questioning about what she may have known about his crimes.

Grove asserted that she never suspected Epstein of sexual assault against women and girls, testimony that Republican investigators described as lacking credibility.

The report concluded that Epstein's crimes committed after 2005 could have been prevented if federal investigators and prosecutors had treated the initial allegations against him more seriously.

Instead, Florida prosecutors in 2007 reached a controversial deal that allowed him to escape federal charges in exchange for him pleading guilty to less serious state crimes.

Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in prison, but he only served 13 months, as he received broad privileges to get out of prison for the purpose of working, during which period he continued to abuse women, according to the report.

The investigation also accused financial institutions of ignoring suspicious transactions and warning signs of human trafficking, and singled out American Express.

Lawmakers called on the Treasury Department to check whether some banks are adequately reporting suspicious activity linked to illicit trafficking and money laundering.

The report also criticized the Department of Justice for disclosing survivors' private information while publishing the Epstein files.

Republican investigators said they found no evidence implicating Trump in Epstein's crimes, and accused Democrats of politicizing the investigation.

But Robert Garcia, the most prominent Democratic member of the committee, rejected these findings, describing them as the outcome of an incomplete investigation that did not include any public hearings. He also accused the Justice Department of illegally withholding “more than 2.5 million pages of documents.”

Democrats, who seized control of Congress in last week's midterm elections, pledged to continue investigating Epstein's network when they assume their new powers in January.

Two informed sources told Reuters on Wednesday that US Treasury Secretary Scott Besent recently moved from his residence in Washington to a military base, following Iranian threats targeting his life.

The New York Times was the first to report this news yesterday (Tuesday). A senior intelligence official in the administration of President Donald Trump warned in a memo seen by Reuters late last month that Iranian plots targeting Americans had reached an advanced stage.

Besant has been leading the campaign of sanctions and economic pressure launched by Washington on Tehran, known as the economic exclusion process, since August, in an attempt to push Tehran to stop attacks on ships and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. This vital waterway remains almost closed since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28.

The economic pressure campaign, which coincides with the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, included imposing sanctions on bank branches in the Middle East and other financial services companies that facilitate transactions with Iran.

A US Treasury Department spokesman said in an emailed statement: “The Iranian regime will not dissuade the Minister, who remains committed to implementing the process of economic exclusion and continuing the blockade, which together are causing the collapse of the Iranian economy.”

The New York Times reported that it was not yet clear how serious the threats directed at Pisant were. An informed source said that security concerns surrounding Piscent increased when the Wall Street Journal published an aerial photo of the mansion in Georgetown, which Piscent had purchased for $12.5 million, shortly after his appointment as Secretary of the Treasury was confirmed in January 2025.

The source added that the photo allowed the geographical location of Besant’s place of residence to be determined, and Besant was transferred to a military base for his safety. He continued: “The media has a duty to act responsibly in light of the increase in threats directed at government officials.”

Iran had previously denied planning to attack officials and individuals on American soil. The New York Times reported that American officials indicated that Iran's ability to carry out large-scale attacks in the United States and other regions abroad is limited.

Picent is the prominent face of the economic pressure campaign launched by Washington on Tehran, during the US-Israeli war on Iran that began on February 28.

The US-Israeli strikes on Iran and the Israeli attacks on Lebanon during the war resulted in the deaths of thousands and the displacement of millions.

The American and Israeli attacks also resulted in the killing of senior Iranian officials, including Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.