Trump says he will sue the BBC in a matter of hours over Panorama edit

Donald Trump is set to sue the BBC within the next 24 hours after the broadcaster doctored a speech he made in 2021 for a Panorama documentary.

The US president said he would file a libel lawsuit 'probably this afternoon or tomorrow morning' after the corporation doctored one of his speeches. 

Trump said: 'I'm suing the BBC for putting words in my mouth… I guess they used AI or something.'

It comes a month after Trump blasted the broadcaster for the editing of a speech he made on January 6, 2021, the day his supporters overran the Capitol.

He vowed to sue unless he got a full retraction, a grovelling apology, and an offer of compensation for misleading Panorama viewers with an edit of his speech. 

The BBC sent a personal apology to the US President in November but said there was no legal basis for him to sue the public broadcaster over a documentary his lawyers called defamatory. They then refused to pay financial compensation.

The corporation said the splicing of the speech was an 'error of judgment' but rejected his compensation demands.

In a letter to BBC staff last month, seen by the Daily Mail at the time, chairman Samir Shah acknowledged what 'I fully understand has been a difficult week', adding: 'I'm aware there is sadness, anger and frustration in relation to what has happened in recent days and it is hard when the BBC is the focus of so much attention and news headlines.'

He said he had written to President Trump 'personally to extend my apology' but that 'while the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim'.

Mr Shah thanked staff for their resilience in what 'I fully appreciate have been challenging circumstances'.

The BBC had admitted 'that our edit unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points in the speech, and that this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action.'

After the BBC refused the total capitulation demanded by the US President, Trump told GB News that he had an 'obligation' to take legal action in a fiery interview.

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'I'm not looking to get into lawsuits, but I think I have an obligation to do it. This was so egregious', he told GB News' Bev Turner last month.

'If you don't do it, you don't stop it from happening again with other people.' 

Trump also confirmed to journalists outside the White House on November 14 that he planned to formally seek damages, saying: 'We'll sue them from anywhere between £760million and £3.8billion, probably sometime next week. 

'I think I have to do it,' he added.

The BBC confirmed the Panorama programme will 'not be broadcast again in this form or on any BBC platforms'.

BBC Newsnight was also accused of doctoring footage of the US President's speech and ignoring concerns raised about it. 

In the Newsnight edit, Trump is presented saying: 'We're going to walk down to the Capitol.

'And we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. And we fight. We fight like hell.

'And if you don't fight like hell, you're not gonna have a country anymore.'

A voiceover from presenter Kirsty Wark followed, saying 'and fight they did' over a clip of the Capitol riot.

Trump previously let rip over the October 2024 Panorama programme that spliced sections of his speech to suggest he directly stoked the 2021 insurrection.

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The broadcaster's documentary said: 'We're gonna walk down to the Capitol, and I'll be there with you and we fight.'

Whereas he actually said: 'We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.'

Following the catastrophic consequences for the corporation, Director General Tim Davie and Deborah Turness, the head of BBC News, both fell on their swords on November 9.

The following week, Trump remarked: 'I guess I have to [sue]. Why not? They defrauded the public, and they've admitted it. This is within one of our great allies, supposedly our great ally. That's a pretty sad event. They actually changed my January 6 speech, which was a beautiful speech, which was a very calming speech, and they made it sound radical.' 

He also told Fox News on November 11: 'I think I have an obligation to [sue] because you can't allow people to do that.'

Trump said he would be 'left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights... including by filing legal action for no less than 1,000,000,000 dollars [£760million] in damages,' if the BBC failed to act.

Trump told GB News he has had 'a lot of success' litigating against news organisations.

'Because it's fake news,' he said. 'But I've never had anything so fake as the BBC. '

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When asked about Trump's legal threats last month, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the corporation is a 'Leftist propaganda machine'.

As licence fee payers faced the prospect of a costly legal battle, the BBC's legal team sent Trump a letter setting out five reasons why it does not think it has a case to answer.

It said the documentary was restricted to viewers in the UK, did not cause Trump any harm - as he was re-elected shortly after – and 'was not designed to mislead, but just to shorten a long speech'.

Fourthly, it said the clip was 12 seconds within an hour-long programme, which also contained voices in support of Trump, and finally, an opinion on a matter of public concern and political speech is heavily protected under defamation laws in the US.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the corporation's editorial standards and guidelines were 'in some cases not robust enough and in other cases not consistently applied'.