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United States President, Donald Trump, has filed a lawsuit seeking at least $10 billion from the British Broadcasting Corporation(BBC) over a misleading edit of his 2021 speech to supporters ahead of the US Capitol riot.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Miami on Monday, seeks “damages in an amount not less than $5,000,000,000” for each of two counts against the British broadcaster, for alleged defamation and violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
Trump had said earlier on Monday that the lawsuit was imminent, claiming the BBC had “put words in my mouth,” even positing that “they used AI or something.”
The documentary aired last year before the 2024 election, on the BBC’s “Panorama” flagship current affairs program.
The video spliced together two separate sections of Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021, in a way that made it appear he explicitly urged supporters to attack the Capitol, where lawmakers were certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.
The Panorama edit suggested Trump told the crowd: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and I’ll be there with you, and we fight. We fight like hell.”
In a statement made available to AFP, a spokesperson for 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 British Broadcasting Corporation, whose audience extends well beyond the United Kingdom, faced a period of turmoil last month after a media report brought renewed attention to the edited clip.
The BBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. It has previously acknowledged the editing was an “error of judgment” and apologised to Trump, but insisted there was no legal basis for a defamation claim.
The controversy triggered one of the biggest crises in the BBC’s 103-year history and led to the resignations of director general Tim Davie and BBC News chief Deborah Turness last month. They announced their departures at the height of a crisis sparked by allegations of “serious and systemic problems” in the BBC’s coverage of issues including Trump, Gaza and trans issues.
The BBC has denied Trump’s claims of legal defamation, though BBC chairman Samir Shah has sent Trump a letter of apology.
Shah also told a UK parliamentary committee last month that the broadcaster should have acted sooner to acknowledge its mistake after the error was disclosed in a memo, which was leaked to The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
The BBC lawsuit is the latest in a string of legal actions Trump has taken against media companies in recent years, several of which have led to multi-million-dollar settlements
