Donald Trump’s lawyer has told GB News the President’s three major demands of the BBC as he plans to move forward with a $1billion lawsuit.
Speaking exclusively on The Late Show Live, attorney Alejandro Brito said Mr Trump was “extremely frustrated” with what he described as “false and defamatory reporting” by the corporation’s Panorama “documentary”.
A memo revealed by The Telegraph highlighted issues with how a speech from the President was edited for a documentary broadcast before last year’s election.
The memo, written by former BBC adviser Michael Prescott, pointed to the way the Panorama documentary had stitched together separate sections of President Trump’s speech. The result gave the appearance that Mr Trump had encouraged the Capitol Hill riots.
Alejandro Brito said that Donald Trump is ‘very frustrated’
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GB NEWS
The lawyer to the president confirmed to GB News that a legal letter was sent to BBC executives on Sunday, setting a deadline of this Friday for a formal response.
“The President seeks three things: a full retraction, an apology, and a monetary settlement proposal from the BBC,” Mr Brito told Britain’s News Channel.
“If they don’t respond, then we will be left with no alternative but to enforce the President’s legal and equitable rights. And it will be up to the President to decide how and when he seeks to do so.”
Mr Brito insisted the action was “not for his benefit, but for the community as a whole,” arguing that the BBC must be “held accountable” for what he called biased and misleading coverage.
Asked if Mr Trump’s case could ultimately hurt British licence fee-payers, the lawyer said he was “not seeking to sting or damage consumers,” but to expose “institutional bias.”
He added: “Decisions have consequences. The BBC tried to bring down the President and they need to be called to task for that conduct.”
He added: “The President is extremely frustrated, yet adamant in his belief that he is going to hold accountable those that engage in and peddling false information and untruthful statements.
“He’s upset about it for his own benefit and really for the community as a whole.
“Given the fact that institutions such as the BBC have the ability and the free rein to engage in such defamatory conduct.”
The BBC’s director general Tim Davie resigned on Sunday, admitting that a Panorama episode aired ahead of last year’s US presidential election was “misleading”.
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Mr Trump responded to the resignations on Sunday, saying top people in the BBC were quitting or being fired “because they were caught ‘doctoring’ my very good (PERFECT!) speech of January 6th”.
“These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential election,” he wrote.
“What a terrible thing for Democracy!”
The BBC has not responded in detail to the concerns raised in the internal memo published by the Telegraph.