Donald Trump sues BBC for defamation over editing of January 6 speech, seeks up to $10 billion in damages

“In a little while, you’ll be seeing I’m suing the BBC for putting words in my mouth,” Trump said. “Literally, they put words in my mouth. They had me saying things that I never said coming out.”

What Donald Trump is alleging

The lawsuit focuses on an episode of the BBC’s flagship current affairs programme Panorama, broadcast about a week before the 2024 US presidential election.

The programme edited together parts of Trump’s January 6 speech, suggesting he 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.”

Trump says the words were taken from different parts of his speech delivered almost an hour apart and combined in a way that misrepresented what he said.

He denies that his speech was intended to encourage violence or the storming of the Capitol, which was aimed at stopping Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

How the BBC responded

The BBC later acknowledged that the editing was an “error of judgment” and issued an apology to Trump, The Guardian said. However, the broadcaster said there was no legal basis for his claim.

Following the controversy, Tim Davie, the BBC’s director general, and Deborah Turness, the head of BBC News, resigned from their roles.

The case adds to Trump’s long-running disputes with major media organisations, as he argues that news outlets have repeatedly misrepresented his words and actions.

Where the lawsuit was filed

Trump filed the lawsuit on Monday evening in the US district court for the southern district of Florida, despite BBC One and BBC iPlayer not being available in the United States.

Trump’s legal team argued that the Florida court has jurisdiction because the BBC conducts significant business in the state, including through its website and BritBox, a streaming service available in the US.

Claims of election interference

A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said the edited broadcast, aired a week before the 2024 US presidential election, amounted to an attempt to influence voters.

“The BBC has a long pattern of deceiving its audience in coverage of President Trump,” the spokesperson said, accusing the broadcaster of acting with a political agenda.