Donald Trump files $10bn defamation lawsuit against BBC over Panorama edit of January 6 speech
US President Donald Trump has filed a multi-billion dollar defamation lawsuit against the BBC over edited speeches in a Panorama documentary.
The BBC said that lawsuit documents were filed in Florida and asked for $5billion (£3.4bn) in damages for defamation. He has also asked for another $5bn over a claim of violating trade practices.
The 33-page lawsuit is said to have accused the BBC of broadcasting a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction of President Trump”. It added that the Panorama documentary was a “brazen attempt to interfere and influence” the 2024 US presidential election, which Trump ultimately won reelection in.
The lawsuit also accused the BBC of “splicing together two entirely separate parts of President Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021” in a bid to “intentionally misrepresent the meaning of what President Trump said”.
The filing comes after a leaked internal memo from within the BBC highlighted concerns about the way the clips had been edited together to indicate that President Trump told supporters he would walk to the Capitol with them and “fight like hell”. The programme was broadcast one week before the presidential election in November 2024.
As a result of the row surrounding the edit, BBC Director General Tim Davie stood down alongside Head of News Deborah Turness earlier this year. The BBC’s chairman Samir Shah also issued an apology to President Trump over the report, which was written was Michael Prescott, saying that there had been an “error of judgement” and accepted that the edit had given “the impression of a direct call for violent action”.
Hours ahead of the lawsuit being filed in Florida, President Trump told reporters during a press conference in Washington on Monday afternoon (December 15): “In a little while, you’ll be seeing I’m suing the BBC for putting words in my mouth literally. They had me saying things that I never said. We’ll be filing that suit probably this afternoon or tomorrow morning.”
Trump has a history of suing media corporations, and is currently engaged in legal action against The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. He has also pursued action against companies such as Paramount Global, eventually settling out of court after he criticised an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris which was broadcast on CBS in the US.
The BBC previously said that it had set out five main arguments as to why the Panorama edit had no basis for a defamation claim, including the fact that it was not broadcast in the US and therefore could not influence the US election result. The BBC has not yet commented following the f defamation lawsuit.