U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Kuntz, who was appointed by Trump, ruled Tuesday that the president's complaint plausibly alleges defamation based on the way the BBC spliced together remarks from Trump's Jan. 6, 2021, speech at the Ellipse as the Capitol riot was unfolding.

At issue is a sequence in the documentary that juxtaposed two comments Trump made at distant points in his speech, making it appear as though he directly endorsed violence. The BBC apologized for the edit before the lawsuit was filed.

In his ruling, Kuntz wrote that the editing "was not trimming around the edges but creating something different than what was stated in the speech." He noted repeatedly that the BBC had acknowledged the misleading nature of the juxtaposition.

The decision means the case will proceed, though the judge's order does not resolve the merits of the claim. The BBC had argued that the lawsuit should be thrown out, but Kuntz found that Trump's legal team had met the threshold for plausibly stating a defamation claim.

The lawsuit is part of a broader legal offensive by Trump against news organizations. The ruling is a setback for the BBC, which had hoped to avoid a costly and high-profile court fight in the United States.

Legal experts said the case could test the boundaries of defamation law as applied to editorial choices by foreign broadcasters, particularly when the subject is a sitting U.S. president. The BBC has not indicated whether it will appeal the ruling.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A BBC spokesperson said the corporation was reviewing the decision.