Trump sues BBC for $10bn over documentary edit

16 Dec 2025, 02:33 · RTE.ie

US President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit seeking at least $10 billion (€8.5 billion) from the BBC over a documentary that edited his 2021 speech to supporters ahead of the US Capitol riot.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Miami, seeks "damages in an amount not less than $5,000,000,000" for each of two counts against the broadcaster, for alleged defamation and violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

Mr Trump had said earlier that the lawsuit was imminent, claiming the BBC had "put words in my mouth," even positing that "they used AI or something."

The documentary at issue aired last year before the 2024 election, on the BBC's Panorama flagship current affairs programme.

A memo by Michael Prescott, a former external adviser to the BBC's editorial standards committee, raised concerns in the summer about the way clips of the US president's speech were spliced together in 'Trump: A Second Chance?' to make it appear Mr Trump had told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them to "fight like hell".

"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," a spokesperson for Mr Trump's legal team said in a statement.

"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 statement added.

Mr Trump may have sued in the US because defamation claims in Britain must be brought within a year of publication, a window that has closed for the Panorama episode.

To overcome the US Constitution's legal protections for free speech and the press, Mr Trump will need to prove not only that the edit was false and defamatory but also that the BBC knowingly misled viewers or acted recklessly.

The broadcaster could argue that the documentary was substantially true and its editing decisions did not create a false impression, legal experts said. It could also claim the program did not damage Trump's reputation.

Other media have settled with Mr Trump, including CBS and ABC when Mr Trump sued them following his comeback win in the November 2024 election.

Mr Trump has filed lawsuits against the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and a newspaper in Iowa, all three of which have denied wrongdoing. The attack on the US Capitol in January 2021 was aimed at blocking Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential win over Trump in the 2020 US election.

British minister Stephen Kinnock, representing the government in early media interviews, said the BBC had been right to apologise, but said it was now right to oppose any legal action.

"It's right that the BBC stands firm on that point," he told Sky News.

Tim Davie and Deborah Turness resigned from their positions at the BBC

The BBC, whose audience extends well beyond the UK, faced a period of turmoil last month after a media report brought renewed attention to the edited clip.

It led BBC director-general Tim Davie and and head of news Deborah Turness to resign.

Mr Trump's lawsuit accuses the edited speech in the documentary of being "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."

The BBC has denied Mr Trump's claims of legal defamation, though BBC chairman Samir Shah has sent Mr Trump a letter of apology.

Mr Shah also told a UK parliamentary committee last month that the broadcaster should have acted sooner to acknowledge its mistake after the error was disclosed in a memo, which was leaked to The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

The BBC lawsuit is the latest in a string of legal action Mr Trump has taken against media companies in recent years, several of which have led to multi-million-dollar settlements.