Donald Trump Sues BBC Over January 6 Speech Edit, Seeks $10 Billion

US President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against the BBC, seeking up to $10 billion in damages, alleging that the broadcaster deliberately misrepresented his January 6 speech to supporters in Washington, delivered shortly before the US Capitol was breached.Confirming the legal action while speaking to reporters at the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said the case includes two claims totalling $5 billion each—one for defamation and another under Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, according to reports by The Guardian. Trump accused the BBC of acting “intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively” in the way his remarks were edited and presented.

The lawsuit centres on a Panorama episode aired over a year ago, in which the BBC stitched together portions of Trump’s speech delivered nearly an hour apart. The edited clip implied that Trump directly urged the crowd to march to the Capitol, stating: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you, and we fight. We fight like hell.”

While the BBC has not issued a fresh response to the lawsuit, it had earlier described the edit as an “error of judgment”and issued an apology to Trump. The controversy intensified after the episode aired shortly before the 2024 US presidential election, triggering what has been described as one of the broadcaster’s most serious internal crises.According to reports, the fallout from the episode led to the resignations of BBC Director-General Tim Davie and BBC News CEO Deborah Turness, marking a turbulent chapter for the UK public broadcaster as scrutiny over editorial standards reached a boiling point.