Donald Trump has agreed to drop Studios Productions and Studios Distribution from his Trump financial records lawsuit, while keeping his $10bn case against the itself alive. A court filing on Thursday said he will continue prosecuting his claims against the British Broadcasting Corporation.
The filing leaves the as the remaining defendant in a lawsuit filed in Florida over a 2024 Panorama episode. Trump says the programme spliced together parts of his speech from January 6, 2021, and his suit accuses the of “intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring” that speech.
Studios companies exit
Trump sued last December, naming the and the two Studios companies over the programme. The said those companies had “no role in creating or producing the documentary, and did not broadcast it in the US,” and Trump’s agreement to dismiss them narrows the case to the broadcaster itself.
The has already apologized for an editing error that gave “the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action.” That apology did not end the litigation, and the court filing keeps the broader claim in place while removing the commercial arm from the suit.
Florida court filing on Thursday
The dispute now turns on the ’s motion to dismiss. The broadcaster says the programme does not meet the legal criteria for defamation and was not made available on its US platforms, while Trump’s lawyers have called that position “an untenable proposition” and said dismissal would be “a wrongful and unjust result.”
His lawyers also told the court that the ’s geo-blocking technology did not reliably prevent US-based viewers from watching its UK-only iPlayer streaming platform. They said the documentary’s production staff gave several people instructions on how to watch it in the US and pointed to a post promoting the programme on X.
Deborah Turness and last November
Criticism of the Panorama edit emerged last November after a leaked internal memo was published by the Telegraph. That episode led to the resignations of Tim Davie and Deborah Turness, and Turness left after the criticism of the edit became public.
The also faces a separate pressure point in the discovery process after it served subpoenas for information from a number of federal agencies, prompting the US government last month to say it was considering participating in the litigation. A February 2027 trial has been scheduled if the case progresses, leaving Trump with a narrower defendant list but the same $10bn claim still in play.
