United States (U.S) President Donald Trump, on Monday, December 15, filed a lawsuit seeking at least $10 billion from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) over a documentary that edited his 2021 speech to supporters ahead of the U.S. Capitol riot.
The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Miami, seeks damages of no less than $5 billion for each of two counts of defamation and violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act against the British broadcaster.
Earlier on Monday, Trump had signalled the lawsuit was imminent, claiming the broadcaster “put words in my mouth” and suggesting the edits may have involved artificial intelligence.
The documentary in question was aired last year on the BBC’s flagship current affairs programme, Panorama, ahead of the 2024 US presidential election.
According to the lawsuit, producers spliced together separate portions of Trump’s speech, creating the impression that he explicitly called for violence.
A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team accused the BBC of intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring the speech in what they described as an effort to interfere in the 2024 presidential election.
The spokesperson further claimed that the broadcaster has a history of misleading coverage of Trump, driven by a leftist political agenda.
The BBC, whose audience extends beyond the United Kingdom (UK), faced turmoil last month after a media report renewed attention on the edited clip.
The controversy led to the resignation of the BBC’s director-general and its top news executive.
Trump’s lawsuit claims that the edited speech was fabricated and aired just one week before the 2024 presidential election in an attempt to influence the outcome against him.
The BBC has denied the defamation claims, although its chairman, Samir Shah, sent Trump a letter of apology.
Shah also told a UK parliamentary committee last month that the broadcaster should have acted sooner to acknowledge the mistake after it was flagged in an internal memo.
The lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal actions Trump has taken against media organisations in recent years, several of which have resulted in multi-million-dollar settlements.
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