US President Donald Trump has filed a $10billion (£7.48billion) lawsuit against the BBC over the edit of a Panorama programme featuring his January 6 speech.
The lawsuit was filed in a Miami federal court on Monday evening.
Mr Trump accused the BBC of defamation and breaking Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, according to several reports
The President is pushing for $5billion (£3.74billion) for each alleged offence.
The President is pushing for $5billion (£3.74billion) for each alleged offence
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Mr Trump’s lawyers claim the BBC doctored his speech just a week before the 2024 election to sway voters, in line with the broadcaster’s “Leftist political agenda”.
A spokesman for the President’s legal team told The Telegraph: “The formerly respected and now disgraced BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech in a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 presidential election.
“The BBC has a long pattern of deceiving its audience in coverage of President Trump, all in service of its own Leftist political agenda.”
The spokesman added that the lawsuit is designed to hold the public broadcaster accountable “for its defamation and reckless election interference just as he has held other fake news mainstream media responsible for their wrongdoing”.
Mr Trump’s lawyers claim the BBC doctored his speech just a week before the 2024 election to sway voters
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PAThe Telegraph revealed in November that the BBC’s Panorama programme spliced together sections of a speech delivered by Mr Trump on January 6, 2021.
The President claimed the broadcaster may have used artificial intelligence to create false quotes, labelling it “fake news”.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, Mr Trump confirmed that he would be officially suing the broadcaster.
He said: “Literally, they put words in my mouth.
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“They actually have me speaking with words that I never said, and they got caught because I believe somebody at BBC said this is so bad, it has to be reported.”
Mr Trump has has a track record of winning multi-million-dollar settlements from large media outlets.
ABC News agreed to a $15million (£11.2million) settlement in 2024 after its lead anchor wrongly claimed he had been found “liable for rape”.
Earlier this year, CBS News settled for $16million (£12million) over its edit of an interview with Kamala Harris, which the President argued was manipulated to make her appear more coherent.
BBC director-general Tim Davie resigned after the scandal was revealed
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PAThe revelations over the Panorama edit sparked a crisis at the BBC, leading to the resignations of director-general Tim Davie and the CEO of News, Deborah Turness.
The BBC has denied deliberately editing the January 6 speech to portray Mr Trump negatively and has refused to pay any compensation.
However, the corporation admitted the programme may have given “the mistaken impression that President Trump called for violent action” and said it would not broadcast the 2024 programme again.
In his speech, Mr Trump said: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”
Almost an hour later, he said: “And we fight. We fight like hell.”
But the Panorama programme the clip shows him saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
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