President Donald Trump has filed a multi-billion-dollar defamation and trade-practices lawsuit in Florida against the BBC over an edit of his 6 January 2021 speech used in a Panorama documentary. Court papers say he is seeking $5bn in damages for defamation and a further $5bn under a trade practices claim. Trump’s lawyers allege the broadcaster “intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively” doctored the footage.
The BBC has apologised for the edit but said there is no basis for a defamation action and has rejected demands for compensation. The corporation had not yet formally filed a response to the lawsuit. Trump had said last month he planned to sue after the programme aired in the UK ahead of the 2024 US election, telling reporters, “I think I have to do it” and claiming, “They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth.”
In his speech on 6 January 2021, delivered before the US Capitol attack, Mr Trump first told supporters, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.” More than 50 minutes later he said, “And we fight. We fight like hell.” The Panorama segment showed a clip that linked those lines to present him as saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.” The BBC said the edit gave “the mistaken impression” that he had made a direct call for violent action but argued that did not amount to defamation.
A leaked internal BBC memo in November criticised the way the speech was edited and led to the resignations of director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness. Before the lawsuit was filed, BBC lawyers had responded at length to Trump’s claims, saying there was no malice in the edit and asserting Trump suffered no harm from the programme, noting his re-election followed shortly after it aired.
The complaint points to agreements the BBC has with other distributors, alleging a third-party media company held licensing rights to show the documentary outside the UK. The BBC has said it did not distribute Panorama on its US channels; the programme was available on BBC iPlayer but restricted to UK viewers. Trump’s filing also argues Floridians may have seen the programme via VPNs or the streaming service BritBox and that publicity and increased VPN use make it likely some in Florida accessed the film before it was removed. The BBC and the named third party have not publicly responded to those specific allegations.