President Donald Trump has threatened a $1 billion lawsuit against the BBC after two of its executives resigned over a deceptive edit of his speech on Jan. 6, 2021, before the Capitol riot.
Trump’s legal team is giving the British public broadcaster until Friday to retract any “false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements” about him, according to a Sunday letter. Otherwise, a civil-action lawsuit seeking up to $1 billion in damages will be filed.
On Monday, the BBC said it will review the letter and respond in due course.
The latest quarrel between Trump and the BBC stems from the public broadcaster’s October 2024 documentary that omitted part of Trump’s remarks on Jan. 6, 2021, and spliced his words together. The edited version made it appear he told his supporters to “fight like hell,” suggesting he called for violence. The letter says he instead promoted peaceful demonstrations outside the Capitol that day.
Trump’s legal team alleged the BBC engaged in election interference by releasing the documentary one week before the 2024 presidential election.
The controversy erupted last week when the Telegraph reported on a 19-page memo showing the BBC “completely misled” viewers with the Trump documentary’s deceptive editing.
As a result, BBC Director-General Tim Davie and BBC News CEO Deborah Turness resigned on Sunday. Trump celebrated the news.
“The TOP people in the BBC, including TIM DAVIE, the BOSS, are all quitting/FIRED, because they were caught ‘doctoring’ my very good (PERFECT!) speech of January 6th,” he posted on Truth Social. “Thank you to The Telegraph for exposing these Corrupt ‘Journalists.’ These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election. On top of everything else, they are from a Foreign Country, one that many consider our Number One Ally. What a terrible thing for Democracy!”
The legal threat put the British broadcaster’s license fee in the public spotlight on Monday as Reform UK leader and Trump ally Nigel Farage warned the fee, which taxes British citizens to fund the media organization, is “wholly unsustainable.”
In order to survive, Farage said the BBC needs to cover “straight news” without bias.
“If it can manage that, it has something of a future. If it cannot manage that, frankly, it has no future at all,” the right-wing leader said, noting he spoke with Trump on Friday about the renewed bias allegations facing the BBC.
While BBC Chairman Samir Shah apologized for an “error of judgement” in Trump’s case, Turness said there is no institutional bias at the company. United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer made a similar case, pushing back against the Trump administration’s claims.
TOP BBC EXECUTIVES RESIGN AFTER LEAKED DOSSIER SHOWS OUTLET DECEPTIVELY EDITED TRUMP JAN. 6 SPEECH
“On the question of is the BBC corrupt? No,” a spokesman for Starmer told reporters. “The BBC has a vital role in an age of disinformation … where there’s a clear argument for a robust, impartial British news service to deliver, and that case is stronger than ever.”
Earlier this year, the Trump administration targeted American public broadcasters NPR and PBS over alleged anti-conservative bias by cutting their taxpayer subsidies. Although Trump has no authority to do the same to a public broadcaster overseas, the BBC could undergo a similar type of reform involving its taxpayer funding. In July, the BBC said it would consider overhauling its license fee because households stopped paying the fee even though it’s required by U.K. law.