Trump threatens billion-dollar lawsuit against BBC for doctored Jan 6 clip
The ‘Outnumbered’ panel reacts to doctored BBC and Australian ABC clips that falsely portray Trump calling for violence on Jan. 6, edited from two separate parts of his speech.
The BBC has apologized to President Donald Trump as he continues to mull a $1 billion lawsuit against the network.
"Lawyers for the BBC have written to President Trump's legal team in response to a letter received on Sunday," a BBC spokesperson said Thursday. "BBC chair Samir Shah has separately sent a personal letter to the White House making clear to President Trump that he and the corporation are sorry for the edit of the president's speech on 6 January 2021, which featured in the programme."
The spokesperson said it has "no plans" to rebroadcast the documentary at the center of the controversy on any of BBC's platforms.
"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," the spokesperson added.
President Donald Trump is mulling a $1 billion lawsuit against the BBC over a documentary that altered his January 6 comments. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Neither the White House nor representatives of Trump's legal team responded to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.
The BBC has been hit with an onslaught of criticism over a BBC Panorama documentary about Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, speech that he delivered before the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Critics believe the documentary was misleading because it omitted Trump urging supporters to protest "peacefully," and stitched together remarks the president made nearly an hour apart to make it appear like one long statement.
Trump threatened a $1 billion lawsuit if the "false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements" were not retracted immediately.
The controversy led to the resignations of BBC News CEO Deborah Turness and BBC director-general Tim Davie.
The BBC issued an apology to President Donald Trump as the broadcaster is being threatened with a $1 billion lawsuit. (Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Photo)
"I stepped down over the weekend because the buck stops with me. But I'd like to make one thing very clear, BBC News is not institutionally biased," Turness told reporters outside the BBC headquarters in London on Monday.
"Our journalists aren't corrupt. Our journalists are hardworking people who strive for impartiality, and I will stand by their journalism," she added. "There is no institutional bias. Mistakes are made."
Trump’s legal team feels "the BBC’s reckless disregard for the truth underscores the actual malice behind the decision to publish the wrongful content, given the plain falsity of the statements."
The president asked for "a full and fair retraction of the documentary," a retraction of any other false statements, as well as an apology and compensation.
"If the BBC does not comply with the above by November 14, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. EST, President Trump will be left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights, all of which are expressly reserved and are not waived, including by filing legal action for no less than $1,000,000,000 (One Billion Dollars) in damages. The BBC is on notice," the letter stated.
Deborah Turness was hounded by reporters as she attempted to meet with BBC staffers at the company’s London headquarters on the heels of her resignation. (Henry Nicholls/Getty Images)
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The Telegraph broke the story when it published excerpts from a whistleblower dossier compiled by Michael Prescott, a communications advisor hired by the BBC to review its editorial standards.
The documents criticized some aspects of BBC coverage, including the Trump edit, reporting on transgender issues and alleged anti-Israel bias in the BBC’s Arabic service.
Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.
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