Donald Trump has launched a 10 billion dollar lawsuit against the BBC, accusing the broadcaster of defamation after it aired an edited version of a speech he made on Jan 6 2021.
The US president’s lawyers filed legal papers in Florida on Monday, claiming the BBC deliberately altered footage of Mr Trump’s address to falsely suggest he encouraged the riot at the US Capitol.
The case centres on a Panorama programme which included a spliced version of the speech delivered shortly before some of Mr Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol building. The Telegraph revealed in November that the edit removed Mr Trump’s calls for protesters to act “peacefully”.
According to the lawsuit, the broadcast aired a week before the 2024 presidential election and was intended to influence voters. The filing claims the programme formed part of what it described as the broadcaster’s “Leftist political agenda”.
Mr Trump is suing the BBC for defamation and for breaching Florida’s deceptive and unfair trade practices act. He is seeking 5 billion dollars in damages for each allegation.
Speaking to the Telegraph, a spokesman for Mr Trump’s legal team said: “The formerly respected and now disgraced BBC defamed president Trump by intentionally, maliciously and deceptively doctoring his speech in a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 presidential election.
“The BBC has a long pattern of deceiving its audience in coverage of President Trump, all in service of its own Leftist political agenda.”
The spokesman added that the lawsuit would hold the BBC accountable “for its defamation and reckless election interference just as he has held other fake news mainstream media responsible for their wrongdoing”.
Speaking from the Oval Office earlier on Monday, Mr Trump accused the broadcaster of fabricating his words. “Literally, they put words in my mouth,” he said.
He added: “They actually have me speaking with words that I never said, and they got caught because I believe somebody at BBC said this is so bad, it has to be reported. Let’s call [it] fake news.”
The controversy triggered turmoil inside the BBC, with two senior executives resigning after the Panorama revelations. Mr Trump’s personal lawyers demanded a formal apology, a retraction of the programme and financial compensation.
In a legal filing dated Nov 9, they said: “Due to their salacious nature, the fabricated statements that were aired by the BBC have been widely disseminated throughout various digital mediums, which have reached tens of millions of people worldwide.
“Consequently, the BBC has caused President Trump to suffer overwhelming financial and reputational harm.”
White House officials also condemned the footage. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said: “This purposefully dishonest, selectively edited clip by the BBC is further evidence that they are total, 100 per cent fake news that should no longer be worth the time on the television screens of the great people of the United Kingdom.”
Mr Trump’s lawyers gave the BBC until Nov 14 to respond. The corporation later apologised and withdrew the programme but refused to pay compensation.
After the refusal, Mr Trump said he would pursue legal action for up to 5 billion dollars, which has now escalated to the full lawsuit.
Legal experts say the president faces a tough fight in the US courts, where free speech protections make defamation claims harder to win than in Britain.
However, Mr Trump has previously secured large settlements from US media organisations. In 2024, ABC News paid 15 million dollars after an anchor wrongly said he had been found liable for rape. A civil jury had in fact ruled he was liable for sexual abuse under New York law.
In July, CBS News agreed to pay 16 million dollars to settle a lawsuit over its editing of an interview with Kamala Harris, which Mr Trump claimed made her sound more coherent.
During his Jan 6 speech, Mr Trump told supporters: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”
Around an hour later, he said: “And we fight. We fight like hell.”
In the Panorama broadcast, the two remarks were edited together to appear as a single statement: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
