Unired States President, Donald Trump, has launched a $5bn (£3.7bn) lawsuit against the BBC, accusing the broadcaster of defamation over an edited version of his 6 January 2021 speech used in a Panorama documentary.
Court filings submitted in Florida allege that the BBC violated trade practices laws and deliberately misrepresented Trump’s remarks
. While the BBC issued an apology last month over the edit, it rejected Trump’s demand for compensation and insisted there was no “basis for a defamation claim.”
According to Trump’s legal team, the broadcaster defamed him by “intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech.” The BBC has yet to comment on the lawsuit.
Trump had previously signalled his intention to sue after the documentary aired in the UK ahead of the 2024 US election. “I think I have to do it,” he told reporters at the time. “They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth.”
During his address on 6 January 2021, delivered before the riot at the US Capitol, 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.” Later in the same speech, he added: “And we fight. We fight like hell.”
However, the Panorama programme combined the two separate statements into a single clip in which Trump appeared to say, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
The BBC later admitted the edit created “the mistaken impression” that Trump had “made a direct call for violent action,” but maintained that this did not amount to defamation.
In November, a leaked internal BBC memo criticised the editing of the speech, prompting the resignations of director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness.
Before the lawsuit was filed, BBC lawyers responded in detail to Trump’s claims, arguing there was no malicious intent and that Trump suffered no harm, noting he was re-elected shortly after the programme aired.
They also said the BBC neither had the rights to, nor distributed, the documentary in the United States. Although it was available on BBC iPlayer, access was limited to UK viewers.
Trump’s lawsuit disputes that position, pointing to agreements between the BBC and other distributors, including a deal with a third-party media company that allegedly had rights to show the documentary outside the UK. Neither the BBC nor the company named has responded to those claims.
The suit further argues that Florida residents may have viewed the programme through VPNs or via the streaming service BritBox.
“The Panorama Documentary’s publicity, coupled with significant increases in VPN usage in Florida since its debut, establishes the immense likelihood that citizens of Florida accessed the Documentary before the BBC had it removed,” the lawsuit said.
