Trump lawyers miss $10B lawsuit deadline, judge demands explanation
President Donald J. Trump delivers remarks at a Crypto conference at the Mar-a-Lago Club
A federal judge is demanding answers from the lawyers of President Donald Trump after they failed to respond to a deadline in a lawsuit he filed against the BBC last year.
The backstory:
President Donald Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC for splicing together clips of a January 6, 2021, speech making it sound as if he directed supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol.
Trump says the BBC defamed him and violated a law that bars deceptive and unfair trade practices.
The BBC issued an apology to President Trump but said they would defend the case, saying there was no legal basis to sue. In response, Trump said that despite their apology, the BBC "has made no showing of actual remorse for its wrongdoing nor meaningful institutional changes to prevent future journalistic abuses."
Missed deadline
The BBC filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which was set to expire last Friday. However, the deadline passed without a response from the president’s attorneys.
Monday, U.S. District Judge Roy Altman directed Trump’s attorneys to explain why they should not be penalized for missing the Friday deadline, calling it an "apparent disregard of court deadlines."
Dig deeper:
The BBC, Britain’s publicly owned broadcaster, is funded through a mandatory license fee on all TV viewers in the United Kingdom. In the last fiscal year, they had a total revenue of 5.9 billion pounds ($7.9 billion), which includes the license fee and commercial income.
The Source: This story was written with information provided by Reuters This story was reported from Orlando.