US President Donald Trump’s team has sent a letter to the BBC threatening to sue the UK public broadcaster for $1 billion (€865 million). His lawyers said the broadcaster must retract a controversial documentary by Friday or face a lawsuit for “no less” than $1 billion.
The letter follows the resignation on Sunday of BBC Director General Tim Davie and Chief Executive of News Deborah Turness, after claims that a Panorama documentary misled viewers by splicing two separate excerpts from one of Trump’s speeches to create the impression he was inciting the January 6 Capitol riot.
A representative for Trump’s legal team confirmed the letter, accusing the BBC of “defaming” the president, and said a full and fair retraction was demanded by November 14. “President Trump will continue to hold accountable those who traffic in lies, deception, and fake news,” the representative added.
The BBC said on Monday it would review the letter and respond in due course. BBC Chairman Samir Shah apologised for the “error of judgment” in the broadcast titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” and accepted that the way the speech was edited “did give the impression of a direct call for violent action.” He rejected claims of systemic bias in the broadcaster’s news reporting.
Pressure on BBC executives intensified after the Daily Telegraph published excerpts from an internal dossier criticising the Panorama edit of Trump’s January 6, 2021 speech. The programme showed Trump saying “we’re going to walk down to the Capitol” and “we will fight like hell,” lines that came from different parts of the speech. The leaked dossier described “serious and systemic problems” with the BBC’s impartiality and called the edit “completely misleading.”
A spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer denied the BBC is institutionally biased or corrupt and said the government supports the corporation. “Clearly mistakes have been made in this case and the director general and Deborah Turness have taken responsibility for those mistakes,” the spokesperson said.
Trump has previously filed lawsuits against US media outlets including ABC, CBS, and The New York Times.
Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko
