US President Donald Trump has filed a $5bn (£3.7bn) defamation lawsuit against the BBC over the editing of his 6 January 2021 speech in a Panorama documentary.
Court documents filed in Florida accuse the BBC of defamation and breaching trade practices law by “intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech”. The BBC has not yet responded to the lawsuit.
The broadcaster apologised last month, acknowledging that the edit gave “the mistaken impression” Trump had “made a direct call for violent action”, but rejected demands for compensation and said there was no “basis for a defamation claim”.
Trump previously said he intended to sue over the programme, telling reporters: “I think I have to do it. They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth.”
The documentary edited together two separate parts of Trump’s speech — including “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol” and later, “And we fight. We fight like hell” — creating the impression they were spoken consecutively.
A leaked internal BBC memo criticised the edit and led to the resignations of director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness.
The BBC has argued there was no malice, that Trump was not harmed as he was re-elected shortly after the programme aired, and that the documentary was restricted to UK viewers. Trump’s lawsuit disputes this, claiming the programme may have been accessed in Florida via VPNs or streaming platforms such as BritBox.