U.S. President Donald Trump has filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC, accusing the British broadcaster of defamation, as well as engaging in deceptive and unfair commercial practices.
The 33-page complaint claims the BBC aired a “false, defamatory, misleading, contemptuous, inciting, and malicious portrayal of President Trump,” calling it “a brazen attempt to interfere with and influence” the 2024 U.S. presidential elections.
Last month, Trump had already sent a letter to the BBC threatening a $1 billion lawsuit over an episode of the broadcaster’s flagship current affairs program Panorama, titled “Trump: A Second Chance?”, which aired just days before the 2024 presidential elections.
The lawsuit alleges that the BBC “combined two completely separate parts of President Trump’s January 6, 2021, speech” to “deliberately convey a meaning” that misrepresented his words.
The speech took place before some of Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, while Congress was preparing to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election, which Trump falsely claimed had been stolen.
The broadcaster apologized to Trump last month for the editing of the speech but denied that it had defamed him. BBC Chairman Samir Shah described it as a “judgment error,” which led to the resignations of the BBC’s top executive and news director.
The one-hour documentary combined three quotes from two parts of the 2021 speech, nearly an hour apart, into what appeared to be a single statement in which Trump allegedly urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” One of the omitted sections included Trump’s call for supporters to demonstrate peacefully.
Earlier on Monday, Trump stated he was suing the BBC “because they put words in my mouth.”
“In fact, they put terrible words in my mouth about January 6 that I didn’t say, and they are beautiful words that I did say, right?” the president said during a calm appearance at the Oval Office. “They are beautiful words, speaking about patriotism and all the good things I said. They didn’t say that, but put terrible words instead.”
The lawsuit was filed in Florida. Deadlines to file the case in British courts expired over a year ago.
Legal experts have highlighted potential challenges for pursuing the case in the U.S., as the documentary did not air there. The lawsuit asserts that people in the U.S. can view the original BBC content, including the Panorama episode, via the subscription streaming platform BritBox.
