President Trump threatens to sue BBC for $1 billion

The BBC reported on Monday that US President Donald Trump had sent him a letter. threaten legal action About how a speech he gave was edited into a documentary broadcast by a British broadcaster.

BBC CEO Tim Davis and his news manager Deborah Turnes they resigned on sunday Due to accusations of bias and misleading editing, President Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021before a crowd of supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington.

On Monday this week, BBC boss Sameer Shah said: Apologies for “misjudgment” In the way the documentary edited the speeches.

Asked about President Trump’s letter threatening legal action over the incident, the BBC said in a statement on Monday: “We will review the letter and respond directly in due course.” Details were not disclosed.

American media have reported details of a letter allegedly sent by President Donald Trump’s legal team to the BBC.

among themBBC until Friday 14th November GMT 22:00 (19:00 in Argentina) Completely and officially withdraw the documentary, Otherwise, they will face multibillion-dollar lawsuits.

The letter states: “If the BBC does not comply with the above by 17:00 Eastern Time on 14 November 2025, President Trump has no choice but to exercise his legal rights.which is expressly withheld and not waived. This includes the possibility of filing a lawsuit for more than $1 billion in damages. The BBC has been notified. ”

President Trump has already welcomed the resignations of BBC director-general Tim Davie and news director Deborah Turness, saying the way the speech had been edited was inappropriate. This is an attempt to “upset the balance of the presidential election.”

A one-hour program entitled “Trump: What about a second chance?”It was broadcast as part of the BBC documentary series Panorama. A few days before the US presidential election In 2024.

3 quotes from 2 sections combined From the 2021 speech, spoken almost an hour apartin what appears to be a single quote in which President Trump urged his supporters to: March with him and “fight against everything.” Among the sections deleted was a section in which Trump asked his followers a question. Demonstrate peacefully.

“Several mistakes were made and, as CEO, I must take ultimate responsibility,” Davey said in his resignation letter to employees.

Mr Turnes said the controversy was damaging the BBC and he was resigning because “the responsibility lies with me”. He also defended the organization’s journalists against accusations of bias.

“Our journalists are hard-working people who strive for fairness, and I support their journalism,” he said Monday. “There is no institutional bias. There are mistakes, but there is no institutional bias.”

playing cards I posted a link to the Daily Telegraph article “I thanked the paper for exposing these corrupt ‘journalists’,” he said, referring to the editing of his speech on the Truth social network. They are very dishonest people who tried It will upset the balance of the presidential election.”. he explained it as follows “This is terrible for democracy!”

White House press secretary Caroline Levitt responded to X and posted a screenshot of an article titled “President Trump goes to war with BBC’s ‘fake news'” Some included the words “shot” and “persecutor” in reference to Davie’s resignation.

Pressure has mounted on the broadcaster’s bosses since the right-wing Daily Telegraph published parts of a document compiled by Michael Prescott, who was hired to advise the BBC on standards and guidelines.

In addition to the Trump version, the document criticized the BBC’s coverage of transgender issues raised concerns that anti-israel prejudice About the Arabic service of British broadcasters.

The episode of “Panorama” aired an edited clip of President Trump’s January 2021 speech in which he claimed the 2020 presidential election was rigged. President Trump is shown saying, “I’m going to walk to the Capitol. I’m going to be with you. And I’m going to fight. I’m going to fight as hard as I can.”

“I’m going to be right there, I’m going to walk with you, I’m going to walk. I’m going to walk anybody here to the Capitol. I’m going to cheer for our brave senators and congressmen, but I’m probably not going to cheer for some people as much,” Trump said, according to the video and transcript of Trump’s remarks that day.

“Because our country will not recover from weakness. We must show strength and be strong. We now demand that Congress do the right thing and count only legally appointed electors.”

“I know everyone here will be marching to the Capitol immediately to peacefully and patriotically make their voices heard.”

President Trump used the phrase “fight everything” toward the end of his speech, but did not mention the Capitol.

“We will fight everything,” Trump said, “and if we don’t fight everything, we won’t have a country anymore.”

In a letter to the UK Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Shah said his purpose in editing Trump’s words was to: “Convey the message of the speech” By doing so, viewers were able to understand how it was received by Trump supporters and what was happening on the ground.

He described the program as follows: Failed to gather “significant audience feedback” When it first aired, more than 500 complaints had been received since the Prescott document was made public.

“We should have acted sooner, but we didn’t,” Shah admitted in an interview with the BBC.

BBC, 103 years old, Subject to greater scrutiny than other broadcasters There has also been criticism from commercial rivals. Annual license fee £174.50 ($230) All households watching the live broadcast pay Or BBC content.

The station is bound by the terms of its charter To be fair, And critics are quick to point out what they think is a failure. Often it’s a political ball: conservatives they see a left-wing trend She has spoken out in news productions, and some liberals have accused her of conservative bias.

Also criticized from all angles For reporting on the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. In February, the BBC removed a documentary about Gaza from its streaming service after it was revealed that the child narrator was the son of a Hamas-led government official.

Governments of the left and right have long been criticized. sabotage the stationwhich is overseen by a board that includes appointees from the BBC and the government.

Some BBC defenders argue that board members appointed under previous Conservative governments have weakened the BBC from within.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s press secretary Tom Wells said the centre-left Labor government supported a “strong, independent BBC” and did not believe the broadcaster was biased.

“However, it is important that the BBC maintains trust and acts quickly to correct mistakes where they occur,” he said.