US President Donald Trump on Monday night filed a defamation lawsuit against the BBC..
The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Florida, seeksat least $5 billion in damages. It accuses the British corporation of producing a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction of President Trump” in a Panorama documentary aired one week before the 2024 election.
The suit alleges the documentary was produced as part of “a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence the Election’s outcome to President Trump’s detriment.”
Trump had earlier announced that he will file the defamation lawsuit against the BBC “today or tomorrow,” over the broadcaster’s edit of his 2021 speech broadcast by its Panorama program.
Speaking to reporters in Washington, DC, the president stated that the BBC had “put terrible words in my mouth that I didn’t say,” and suggested that artificial intelligence might have been used to manipulate the footage.
“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 I never said. They actually have me speaking with words that I never said, and they got caught because I believe somebody at BBC said this is so bad, it has to be reported. Let’s call [it] fake news. So we’ll be filing that suit probably this afternoon or tomorrow morning.”
The disputed Panorama spliced two separate clips from Trump’s speech before the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots to create the appearance that Trump told a crowd: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol … and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
The controversy erupted after a leaked memo from former editorial adviser Michael Prescott, who warned of “systemic problems” in BBC News.
The memo triggered the resignations of director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness earlier this month.
The BBC eventually published a correction acknowledging that the edit “gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action,” and confirmed the segment would not be rebroadcast. However, the broadcaster denied defamation and refused to pay damages.
Trump had previously announced he intends to sue the BBC for up to $5 billion over the editing of his speech.