Donald Trump has launched a £7.5 billion lawsuit against the BBC, accusing the public broadcaster of defamation and deceptive editing in a documentary examining the January 6, 2021, attack
on the US Capitol.
Court papers filed in Florida allege the BBC “intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively” edited remarks from Trump’s speech to supporters on the day of the riot, misrepresenting his words and intent. The former US president is seeking £3.7 billion in damages for defamation and a further £3.7 billion for alleged violations of trade practices.
The case centres on a ‘Panorama’ documentary aired more than a year ago, which used excerpts from Trump’s speech delivered near the White House. The programme juxtaposed comments made nearly an hour apart to suggest he told the crowd: “We are going to walk down to the Capitol and I will be there with you, and we fight. We fight like hell.”
Trump’s lawsuit claims the edit created a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction” of him, accusing the BBC of splicing together separate parts of the speech to distort its meaning. The filing also describes the programme as “a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence” the 2024 US presidential election.
Although the documentary was not broadcast in the United States, the lawsuit argues it remains accessible to American audiences through the BritBox subscription streaming service.
The controversy resurfaced earlier this year following a leaked internal memo that raised concerns about the edit. In the wake of the fallout, BBC director general Tim Davie and BBC News chief Deborah Turness both resigned.
Speaking at a press conference in Washington on Monday, Trump said legal action was imminent. “I’m suing the BBC for putting words in my mouth—literally,” he said. “They had me saying things that I never said.”
The BBC said it had not yet responded to the court filing.
The lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal battles Trump has pursued against media organisations. He has previously taken action against outlets including ‘The New York Times’, CBS, ABC, Dow Jones and CNN. A £360 million defamation case against CNN—over its use of the term “the Big Lie” to describe Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election—was dismissed by a federal judge last year. Photo by Gage Skidmore, Wikimedia commons.