Donald Trump says he has ‘obligation’ to sue BBC over speech edit – latest updates

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Explainer: Can Donald Trump sue the BBC for $1bn and which party would win?

Donald Trump has grabbed the headlines after threatening to sue the BBC for $1bn (£760m) for what the corporation has accepted was a misleading edit of his speech on 6 January 2021 during the Capitol Hill insurrection.

Can Trump really sue for $1bn?

In the UK the biggest defamation award made by a court is believed to be £1.5m, but in the US the highest award was the $1.4bn, the Infowars founder and conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones, was ordered to pay to the families of victims from the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, which he claimed was a hoax.

However, that case is an outlier, with the next highest US payout believed to be the $787.5m Fox agreed to pay the voting equipment company Dominion in settlement over a claim that Dominion was involved in a plot to steal the 2020 election.

Trump has not elaborated on how the $1bn was reached and has form for making legal claims with eye-catching amounts, including the $10bn (later increased to $20bn) he sought from the BBC’s US partner CBS News, which he accused of doctoring an interview with Kamala Harris to cast her in a positive light; the $15bn defamation lawsuit filed against the New York Times for “spreading false and defamatory content” about him; and a $10bn libel claim against the Wall Street Journal over its reporting of his links to Jeffrey Epstein.

Here the Guardian examines the US president’s potential path to bringing and winning a libel claim:

MPs also called for Robbie Gibb to be removed. Labour MP Sarah Owen said it was time to review his place on the board.

Anna Sabine, the Liberal Democrat culture spokesperson, said it was “obvious to everyone that this issue is being weaponised by those who want to undermine the BBC and who would profit from its demise”. “Serious concerns remain over the conduct of Sir Robbie Gibb during his tenure on the BBC board,” she said, backing his removal.

Pete Wishart, from the SNP, also called for his departure.

However, Conservative MP Sir Julian Lewis said the “crisis had nothing to do with Robbie Gibb” and was entirely down to the mistakes the BBC had made. A corporation spokesperson said Gibb was one voice on a board of 13 people, which had a “cross-section of views”.

The culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, said there was a “strict legal threshold that must be met before dismissal of a board member”, adding that she could not remove Gibb. She condemned attempts to launch a “sustained attack” on the BBC.

Suggestions of a political effort to pressure the BBC from the right have been denied. In his letter, Michael Prescott, a former independent external adviser to the BBC’s editorial guidelines and standards committee, said his criticisms “do not come with any political agenda”.

In the all-staff meeting, Samir Shah, the BBC’s chair, said any idea of a rightwing coup to destabilise the BBC from within was “fanciful”.

“[Board members] have different points of view,” he said.

I wouldn’t want a board that’s guilty of groupthink, but the opposite of groupthink is different points of view. That makes the job of the chair challenging to try and organise and get consensus, but it’s important that people have a diversity of opinion on the board.

BBC staff watching outgoing director general Tim Davie’s address tried to raise the issue of Robbie Gibb’s place on the board. “Why is Robbie Gibb still on the board?” asked one.

“The board needs independent oversight free from political interference,” said another. “Until Robbie Gibb and any other political appointee are removed, we cannot possibly be truly trusted to be an unbiased organisation.”

Another said:

I find Robbie Gibb’s continued presence at the BBC to be incredibly demoralising. It feels as if he is fighting against and undermining the work we’re trying to do.

MPs and BBC staff call for Robbie Gibb to leave broadcaster’s board

MPs and BBC staff members have called for Robbie Gibb to be removed from the corporation’s board as outgoing director general Tim Davie hit out at the “weaponisation” of criticisms of the broadcaster.

In an online meeting with Davie, staff questioned the position of Gibb, Theresa May’s former communications chief, who was appointed during Boris Johnson’s time as prime minister.

Several said Gibb and all political appointees should be removed from the body. It has been claimed that Gibb pushed accusations of institutional bias that preceded the shock resignation of Davie and Deborah Turness, the head of BBC News.

Their departures over the weekend followed accusations of bias made in a memo by Michael Prescott, a former independent external adviser to the BBC’s editorial guidelines and standards committee. He left that role in the summer.

His memo was leaked to the Daily Telegraph last week and reported over the course of several days.

It included criticism of the way Panorama broadcast edited footage of a Donald Trump speech, which has since led the US president to threaten a $1bn legal action. Prescott made a series of other claims of a more general liberal bias on issues such as trans rights and Gaza.

Robbie Gibb was appointed to the BBC board in 2021 by Boris Johnson. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

While the BBC has acknowledged failings, concern has grown over Gibb’s position on the board amid suggestions that he played a role in both pushing Prescott’s claims and in Prescott being awarded the advisory role. Both Gibb and Prescott have now been summoned to give evidence to the Commons culture, media and sport committee.

Thanking staff for their support at the meeting, Davie reassured them that the narrative around the corporation “will not just be given by our enemies” after a week in which senior politicians have accused the BBC of systemic bias in its reporting.

“I do hear everyone when we have to be very clear and stand up for our journalism,” he said. “We are in a unique and precious organisation. I see the free press under pressure. I see the weaponisation. I think we’ve got a fight for our journalism. I’m really proud of our work.”

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said the crisis at the BBC has provided an “opportunity” to “take away all the people who were political appointees”.

According to the PA news agency, Cooper told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme:

We Liberal Democrats don’t think that there should be any political appointees and we would like to see legislation to bring back the independent appointments process for the BBC board.

The St Albans MP added:

I do think that this crisis in the BBC provides an opportunity for us to clear up the BBC and to make sure we can safeguard its independence for future.

When you look at independent editorial decisions that have been made on particular stories, there’s no doubt in my mind that the BBC has, on a number of occasions, been pretty sloppy, and it’s been very slow at correcting them.

But I think ultimately this is an opportunity, this crisis, and the way we make the most of that, to protect the BBC, to safeguard its future and to protect its independence, is to make sure that we can take away all the people who were political appointees.

Trump says he has 'obligation' to sue BBC

Good morning and welcome to our coverage of the continuing fallout at the BBC as Donald Trump claimed the broadcaster had “defrauded the public” and he had an “obligation” to take legal action over the editing of a speech.

Director-general Tim Davie quit on Sunday amid criticisms over the editing of a speech by Trump before the attack on the US Capitol on January 6 2021 in an edition of Panorama which aired last year just before the 2024 presidential election.

The US president reiterated his threat of launching a $1bn legal action during an interview on Fox News. He said:

I think I have an obligation to do it, you can’t allow people to do that.

I guess I have to. They defrauded the public and they’ve admitted it. This is within one of our great allies, supposedly our great ally [the UK].

That’s a pretty sad event. They actually changed my January 6 speech, which was a beautiful speech, which was a very calming speech, and they made it sound radical.

The 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.

The words were taken from sections of his speech almost an hour apart.

A legal letter, from Trump counsel Alejandro Brito, has demanded that “false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements” made about Trump be retracted immediately.

The letter says if the BBC “does not comply”, the president will be “left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights, all of which are expressly reserved and are not waived, including by filing legal action for no less than 1,000,000,000 dollars in damages”.