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Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against the BBC over its editing of a speech he made to supporters in Washington before they stormed the US Capitol in 2021, requesting at least $5bn in damages.
The US president alleged the broadcaster “intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively” edited his 6 January speech before the insurrection, in an episode of Panorama just over a year ago.
The edit, taken from sections of his speech almost an hour apart, 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 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 apologized to Trump, but insisted there was no legal basis for a claim.
Tim Davie, the BBC’s director general, and Deborah Turness, the head of BBC News, resigned over the affair last month.
Trump’s lawsuit was filed on Monday evening at the US district court for the southern district of Florida – even though BBC iPlayer, the main streaming platform that carries Panorama, and BBC One, the main TV channel that broadcasts it, are not available in the US.
A spokesman for Trump’s legal team claimed the edits of his speech, which were aired a week for the 2024 presidential election, amounted to a “brazen attempt” to interfere in contest.
“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 spokesman said. “President Trump’s powerhouse lawsuit is holding the BBC accountable for its defamation and reckless election interference just as he has held other fake news mainstream media responsible for their wrongdoing.”
The Florida court has jurisdiction over this case, Trump’s lawsuit argued, because the BBC is “engaged in substantial and not isolated business activities” in the state. It pointed to the BBC’s website and BritBox, a streaming platform it operates in several markets including the US.
Trump had teased the lawsuit earlier on Monday, telling reporters at the Oval Office: “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 had me saying things that I never said coming out.”
Trump has repeatedly denied responsibility for the insurrection, which was aimed at blocking Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s win over Trump in the 2020 US presidential election.
