President Donald Trump formally filed a $5 billion lawsuit against the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Monday over its editing of his speech on Jan. 6, 2021.
Two top BBC officials, Director General Tim Davie and CEO of News Deborah Turness, resigned in November after a dossier by Michael Prescott, a former external advisor to the network’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee, detailing instances of bias was leaked to the Telegraph. The lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida accused the BBC of interfering with the 2024 presidential election by airing an episode of “Panorama” featuring doctored video of Trump’s speech on Jan. 6, 2021, to make it appear he incited the riot at the Capitol building.
“The Panorama Documentary falsely depicted President Trump telling supporters: ‘We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.’ (Falsely depicted at 33:53 of the Documentary),” the complaint says. “President Trump never uttered this sequence of words.”
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Telegraph associate editor Gordon Rayner broke down how the video was edited to present the appearance that Trump endorsed the riot in a video posted by the newspaper on YouTube Nov. 3, which was similar to a description of the events in the complaint.
“Moreover, the BBC purposefully omitted President Trump stating, less than one minute after urging supporters to cheer for their senators and congressmen, ‘I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard’ (Remarks made on January 6, 2021, 12:13 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, 15:48 into the Speech),” the complaint states.
The BBC apologized to Trump on Nov. 13 in a letter from chairman Samir Shah after the two top BBC officials resigned following the Prescott dossier’s release, saying the program would not air again.
Trump has won settlements from media outlets over their coverage of him. He secured a $15 million settlement with ABC in December 2024 after he sued the outlet on March 19, 2024, for defamation over “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos falsely saying Trump was found “liable for rape” during a contentious March 10, 2024, appearance by Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina.
Paramount announced it had settled a $10 billion lawsuit filed by Trump over the editing of an October 2024 interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who was Trump’s opponent in the 2024 presidential election, on “60 Minutes” on July 2.
“As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case,” a BBC spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation when the outlet was reached for comment. “We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”
The White House referred the DCNF to outside counsel when reached for comment. Alejandro Brito, the counsel who signed the complaint, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
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