Trump sues BBC for defamation over editing of Jan 6 speech, seeks up to $12.9 billion in damages

WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump sued the BBC on Dec 15 for defamation over edited clips of a speech that made it appear he directed supporters to storm the US Capitol, opening an international front in his fight against media coverage he deems untrue or unfair.

Mr Trump accused Britain’s publicly owned broadcaster of defaming him by splicing together parts of a Jan 6, 2021, speech, including one section where he told supporters to march to the Capitol and another where he said “fight like hell”.

It omitted a section in which he called for peaceful protest.

Mr Trump’s lawsuit alleges that the BBC defamed him and violated a Florida law that bars deceptive and unfair trade practices.

He is seeking US$5 billion (S$6.45 billion) in damages for each of the lawsuit’s two counts.

The BBC said it would defend the case and would not make any further comment. It had previously apologised to Mr Trump, admitted an error of judgment, and acknowledged that the edit gave the mistaken impression that he had made a direct call for violent action.

But it has said there is no legal basis to sue.

Minister of State for Care Stephen Kinnock, representing the British government in early media interviews, said the BBC had been right to apologise, but said it was now right to oppose any legal action.

“It’s right that the BBC stands firm on that point,” he told Sky News on Dec 16.

A spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said any legal action was a matter for the corporation but the government defended “the principle of a strong, independent BBC as a trusted, relied-upon national broadcaster, reporting without fear or favour”.

Mr Starmer has gone to great lengths to cultivate a solid relationship with Mr Trump.

Mr Trump, in his lawsuit filed on Dec 15 in Miami federal court, said 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 BBC is funded through a mandatory licence fee on all TV viewers, which British lawyers say could make any payout to Mr Trump politically fraught. It had a total revenue of £5.9 billion (S$10.2 billion) in its last financial year, including the licence fee and commercial income.

A spokesperson for Mr Trump’s legal team said in a statement the BBC “has a long pattern of deceiving its audience in coverage of President Trump, all in service of its own leftist political agenda”.

A BBC spokesperson told Reuters earlier on Dec 15 it had “no further contact from President Trump’s lawyers at this point”, adding that its “position remains the same”.

Crisis led to resignations

Facing one of the biggest crises in its 103-year history, the BBC has said it has no plans to rebroadcast the documentary on any of its platforms.

The dispute over the clip, featured on the BBC’s Panorama documentary show shortly before the 2024 presidential election, sparked a public relations crisis for the broadcaster, leading to the resignations of its two most senior officials.

Mr Trump’s lawyers say the BBC caused him overwhelming reputational and financial harm.

The documentary drew scrutiny after the leak of a BBC memo by an external standards adviser that raised concerns about how it was edited, part of a wider investigation of political bias at the publicly funded broadcaster.

The documentary was not broadcast in the United States.

The lawsuit, however, stated that it was available in the US via a BBC-owned streaming platform called BritBox.

It also said Canadian group Blue Ant Media had the rights to distribute the documentary in North America.

The BBC did not immediately respond to a question on whether the documentary was available on BritBox or whether Blue Ant Media had sold it to any US broadcaster or streamer.

The documentary drew scrutiny after the leak of a BBC memo by an external standards adviser that raised concerns about how it was edited, part of a wider investigation of political bias at the broadcaster.

Mr Trump may have sued in the US because defamation claims in Britain must be brought within a year of publication, a window that has closed for the Panorama episode.

To overcome the US Constitution’s legal protections for free speech and the press, Mr Trump will need to prove not only that the edit was false and defamatory, but also that the BBC knowingly misled viewers or acted recklessly.

The broadcaster could argue that the documentary was substantially true, and its editing decisions did not create a false impression, legal experts said. It could also claim that the programme did not damage Mr Trump’s reputation.

Other media outlets have settled with Mr Trump, including CBS and ABC, when Mr Trump sued them following his comeback win in the November 2024 election.

Mr Trump has filed lawsuits against The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and a newspaper in Iowa, all three of which have denied wrongdoing.

The attack on the US Capitol in January 2021 was aimed at blocking Congress from certifying Mr Joe Biden’s presidential win over Mr Trump in the 2020 US election. REUTERS