Trump sues BBC for $10 billion over documentary editing his January 6 remarks

US President Donald Trump has filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC, saying the British public-service broadcaster produced a “false and deceptive” depiction of him in a documentary to influence the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.

The lawsuit, lodged in Miami federal court on Monday night, alleged the BBC produced a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction of President Trump” in a Panorama documentary aired one week before the 2024 vote.

Trump’s suit claimed that the documentary was produced as part of “a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence the Election’s outcome to President Trump’s detriment.”

The suit underlined that the documentary, titled “Trump: A Second Chance,” was edited to make it appear that during his January 6, 2021, speech outside the White House, Trump had explicitly called on his supporters to storm the US Capitol.

“The Panorama Documentary falsely depicted President Trump telling supporters: ‘We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,’” the suit said. “President Trump never uttered this sequence of words.”

The complaint stressed that the sentence containing the words “And we fight” was uttered by Trump nearly 55 minutes after he said the words “I’ll be there with you.”

BBC Chair Samir Shah recently apologized for an “error of judgment” over the edit, and the broadcaster’s director general and head of news both resigned.

The BBC apologized to Trump on November 13 and promised not to air the documentary again or show it on any of its platforms.

“While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree that there is a basis for a defamation claim,” the broadcaster said in a statement at the time.

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Trump claimed in his lawsuit in Miami federal court that the BBC, despite its apology, "has made no showing of actual remorse for its wrongdoing nor meaningful institutional changes to prevent future journalistic abuses."

The lawsuit, which seeks $5 billion in damages for each of its two counts — defamation and violation of Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, is the latest in a series of defamation complaints that Trump has filed against media outlets.

The US president filed a $15 billion lawsuit against The New York Times in September, accusing the newspaper of being a “mouthpiece” for the Democratic Party.

Trump also sued CBS for $20 billion in October last year for what he claimed was deceptive editing of an interview with his then-election opponent, Kamala Harris.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir