United States President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), demanding at least $10 billion in damages over a documentary that allegedly altered his January 6, 2021 speech to supporters before the US Capitol riot.
The lawsuit, submitted on Monday at a federal court in Miami, seeks “damages in an amount not less than $5,000,000,000” on each of two claims — defamation and violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
Earlier on Monday, Trump had signalled that legal action was imminent, accusing the broadcaster of misrepresenting his words and suggesting the clip may have been manipulated. “They put words in my mouth,” he said, adding that “they used AI or something.”
The legal action stems from a documentary aired last year on the BBC’s flagship current affairs programme, Panorama, ahead of the 2024 US presidential election. The programme featured an edited video that combined two different portions of Trump’s January 6 speech, creating the impression that he directly encouraged supporters to storm the Capitol as lawmakers certified Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
In a statement to AFP, a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said: “The formerly respected and now disgraced BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech in a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 Presidential Election.”
The spokesperson further alleged that, “The BBC has a long pattern of deceiving its audience in coverage of President Trump, all in service of its own leftist political agenda.”
The controversy surrounding the edited footage resurfaced last month following a media report, triggering a major internal crisis at the BBC. The fallout reportedly led to the resignation of the broadcaster’s director-general and its top news executive.
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Trump’s lawsuit claims the edited speech was “fabricated and aired by the Defendants one week before the 2024 Presidential Election in a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence the Election’s outcome to President Trump’s detriment.”
While the BBC has rejected the defamation allegations, its chairman, Samir Shah, has issued a letter of apology to Trump. Shah also told a UK parliamentary committee that the broadcaster should have responded more quickly once the error was identified in an internal memo later leaked to The Daily Telegraph.
The case marks the latest in a series of legal battles Trump has pursued against media organisations in recent years, several of which have ended in multi-million-dollar settlements.