Trump sues BBC for $10 billion over alleged misrepresentation of his speech
Kyiv • UNN
Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit in Miami court against the BBC for $10 billion for defamation and violation of Florida's trade practices law. The lawsuit concerns edited footage of Trump's speech shown on the Panorama program.
A lawsuit against the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was filed on Monday in a federal court in Miami. The lawsuit contains one claim for alleged defamation and another for the BBC's violation of Florida's trade practices act. Trump is seeking at least $5 billion in damages for each count, as well as other costs. This was reported by Bloomberg, writes UNN.
Details
Alejandro Brito, Trump's lawyer, confirmed that the total amount of damages claimed is $10 billion. Some media, including Bloomberg News, initially reported that the lawsuit was filed for $5 billion.
Trump threatened to sue after BBC chairman Samir Shah acknowledged on November 10 that edited footage of Trump's speech shown on the Panorama program in 2024 mistakenly created "the impression of a direct call to violent action." Days later, the broadcaster issued a second apology but rejected the president's demand for compensation.
I am suing the BBC for putting words in my mouth. Literally, they put words in my mouth. They made me say things I never said
The BBC has not yet responded to a request for comment.
The documentary created the impression that Trump urged his supporters to "go to the Capitol" and "fight to the end" before the riots. In reality, he said they should "support our brave senators and congressmen and congresswomen." The phrase "fight to the end" came from another part of the speech.
The lawsuit alleges that the editing was "a brazen attempt to interfere with and influence the outcome of the election to the detriment of President Trump."
This instance of falsification — in the form of distorting content and splicing together completely unrelated fragments of words — is part of the BBC's long-standing practice of manipulating President Trump's speeches and presenting content in a misleading way to defame him, including by fabricating calls for violence that he never made
Last month, the BBC complied with some of Trump's demands by issuing a formal apology and removing from broadcast a program titled "Trump: A Second Chance," which aired a week before the 2024 presidential election. This followed the unexpected November resignations of BBC Director-General Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness a few days earlier.
The BBC's response was deemed insufficient by Trump, and last month he increased his demands from $1 billion to $5 billion while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One.
Recall
Trump has a history of lawsuits against media for coverage that the president deems unfair or biased. By using or threatening to use the courts and the powers of his administration, Trump has already forced some of the largest US media outlets to make significant concessions.
CBS agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit by the president, who accused the network of election interference over how the 60 Minutes program edited a quote from an interview with presidential candidate Kamala Harris, which he said made her statements more coherent.
ABC paid a similar amount to settle a lawsuit regarding news anchor George Stephanopoulos's incorrect assertion that Trump was "found liable for rape" in the E. Jean Carroll case, while the jury found him liable only for sexual assault. The jury did not accept Carroll's claim of rape.
The president also has multi-billion dollar lawsuits pending in Florida against the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal for defamation allegations, which both organizations deny. The Times was sued for allegedly systematic coverage that harmed the president's brand and reputation, while the Journal was sued for publishing that Trump allegedly sent a vulgar birthday greeting note to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein in 2003.
At the same time, there are significant legal differences between the claims against the BBC and the American media companies that Trump has previously attacked. The Panorama documentary, which is at the center of the dispute, was never broadcast in the US, and access to the program was geo-blocked on the BBC's streaming service.
The president will also need to prove that the BBC acted with "actual malice" towards him during the editing of the documentary — a high standard for public figures established by the US Supreme Court in 1964 to protect freedom of speech.