Trump Sues BBC for $10bn Over Edited January 6 Speech

US President Donald Trump has launched a $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC, claiming the broadcaster misrepresented his words in a documentary about the 6 January 2021 Capitol attack.

Filed on Monday in a federal court in Miami, the suit accuses the British network of defamation and violating Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. Trump is seeking at least $5 billion for each of the two counts.

Trump, 79, told reporters earlier that the lawsuit was imminent, insisting the BBC had “put words in my mouth” and even suggesting that artificial intelligence may have been used to manipulate his speech.

The case centres on a Panorama documentary aired last year, shortly before the 2024 US presidential election. The programme combined two separate segments of Trump’s speech to supporters on the day of the Capitol riot, creating the impression that he explicitly encouraged an attack on the building where Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s election victory.

Trump’s legal team said the BBC had “intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively” altered the footage in a bid to influence the outcome of the 2024 election. The team also criticised the broadcaster for what it described as a “longstanding leftist bias” against Trump.

The controversy has rocked the BBC, which has a global audience. The revelation of the edited clip last month prompted the resignations of both the director-general and the organisation’s top news executive.

Trump’s lawsuit claims the footage was deliberately fabricated and released just a week before the election to undermine his campaign.

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The BBC has denied the defamation claims. Its chairman, Samir Shah, has apologised to Trump and told a UK parliamentary committee that the broadcaster should have acted more quickly to correct the error after it came to light in an internal memo leaked to the press.

This legal action adds to a series of high-profile lawsuits Trump has filed against media organisations in recent years, several of which have resulted in multi-million-dollar settlements.