Trump says he will sue the BBC for up to $5bn over misleading Panorama edit

Trump: A Second Chance? aired on the eve of the US election

US president Donald Trump has said he will sue the BBC for between US$1bn and US$5bn over a misleading edit in its Panorama documentary Trump: A Second Chance?.

The renewal of his threat to pursue a defamation lawsuit comes after the UK public broadcaster apologised on Thursday but said it “strongly” disagrees there is basis for a defamation claim.

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday that “we’ll sue them for anywhere between US$1bn and US$5bn, probably sometime next week.”

He also reiterated his stance that he feels he must sue. “Well, I think I have to do it. They’ve even admitted that they cheated,” he said, adding that they “changed the words coming out of my mouth.”

In the documentary, aired in the UK last October ahead of the US presidential election, a speech Trump made on January 6, 2021 was edited by splicing together two sound bites to make it appear that he directly encouraged his supporters to storm the US Capitol Building.

The potentially problematic nature of the edit was flagged in an internal memo penned by former BBC advisor Michael Prescott. The memo was subsequently leaked as part of an investigation by UK newspaper The Telegraph, which created a media firestorm and led to director-general Tim Davie and chief executive of news Deborah Turness stepping down.

Last Monday, BBC chair Samir Shah conceded the edit “did give the impression of a direct call for violent action,” calling it an “error of judgement” on the part of the pubcaster.

In an initial legal letter sent to the BBC, Trump’s legal team said the president had suffered “overwhelming financial and reputational harm” because of the documentary and claimed the BBC “intentionally sought to completely mislead its viewers.”

On Thursday, the BBC said its legal team had responded to Trump’s lawyers but did not share what it had said. A BBC representative told C21 the corporation has not heard from Trump’s lawyers since the initial letter last weekend. “We have had no further contact from President Trump’s lawyers at this point. Our position remains the same.”