U.S. District Judge Roy Altman, a President Donald Trump appointee, threatened to sanction Trump's legal team for missing a June 5 court deadline in a $10 billion libel lawsuit against the BBC.
Instead of filing required responses to the BBC's motion to dismiss, Trump's attorneys submitted two last-minute procedural filings: one seeking permission for excess pages and another, requesting to file under seal. Both were submitted without requesting a deadline extension.
Altman ordered the legal team to explain by June 10 why sanctions should not be imposed for their apparent disregard of court deadlines and questioned whether the BBC's motion should be considered unopposed. The December lawsuit accuses the BBC of defamation by splicing two portions of Trump's January 6 speech, made 55 minutes apart, to suggest he provoked the assault on the Capitol.
They cited the President's infamous remark, "fight like hell."
The BBC apologized for the edit but argues, Florida court lacks jurisdiction over a documentary never aired in the United States, reports Politico. Legal experts, like Bob Corn-Revere, chief counsel at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, remain skeptical of the case's legal merit and jurisdictional basis.
The BBC's motion to dismiss remains pending since March.
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