US President Donald Trump is suing the BBC, claiming a doctored video falsely linked him to the Capitol riot. Photo / Getty Images
Donald Trump is to file a lawsuit against the BBC, accusing the broadcaster of defamation.
The US President said his lawyers were preparing to file court papers in Florida today or tomorrow over a doctored speech that made it appear he encouraged the Capitol Hill riot.
Speaking in the Oval Office today, Trump said: “In a little while, you’ll be seeing I’m suing the BBC for putting words in my mouth. Literally, they put words in my mouth.
“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. So we’ll be filing that suit probably this afternoon or tomorrow morning.”
The Telegraph disclosed in November that Panorama spliced together parts of a speech given by Trump on January 6, 2021, which he gave just before some of his supporters attacked the US Capitol building.
Trump has repeatedly sued news organisations in the past, winning tens of millions of dollars in a war on what he calls the “fake news” media.
The revelations prompted a crisis at the broadcaster, triggering the resignation of two senior BBC executives.
Trump previously said he would sue the corporation for between US$1 billion ($1.7b) and US$5b.
The President’s personal lawyers asked the BBC to apologise, retract the report and pay compensation, or face legal action.
They wrote in a legal filing on November 9: “Because of 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 video.
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% fake news that should no longer be worth the time on the television screens of the great people of the United Kingdom.”
Trump’s lawyers gave the BBC a deadline of November 14 to respond to their demands.
Although the corporation apologised and withdrew the report, it made clear it would not pay Trump any compensation.
When the corporation refused to pay, Trump told the Telegraph he would launch legal action for up to US$5 billion.
Legal experts believe Trump faces an uphill battle to win a defamation case.
It is much tougher to win a libel case in the US, where freedom of speech concerns have more weight than most other arguments.
Trump’s real motivation may be getting the BBC to soften its coverage, said Michael J. Socolow, a professor of communication and journalism at the University of Maine.
“I think the money is definitely secondary to getting the BBC to treat him differently,” he said.
During Trump’s address on January 6, the President said: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”
Roughly an hour later, he said: “And we fight. We fight like hell.”
In Panorama’s version, the edit made it sound like a single passage: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol ... and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
After the Telegraph’s reporting, Tim Davie, the BBC’s director-general, and Deborah Turness, both resigned.
The revelations were contained in an internal whistleblower report that also identified anti-Israel and pro-transgender bias inside the BBC.
Trump has twice won sizeable payouts from American news organisations.
In 2024, ABC News agreed to pay US$15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit after its star anchor falsely said he had been found “liable for rape”.
In fact, a jury in a civil case had determined that Trump was liable for “sexual abuse”, which has a specific definition under New York law.
CBS News paid US$16m in July to settle a suit over the broadcaster’s edit of an interview with Kamala Harris, which Trump argued had been done to make her sound more coherent.
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