President Trump lodged an eye-watering $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC on Monday, accusing the British broadcaster of defaming him through a deceptive edit of his Jan. 6, 2021, speech at the White House Ellipse.
The lawsuit took aim at a 2024 documentary by the BBC, which spliced different sections of Trump’s comments before his supporters ransacked the Capitol to make it appear as though he explicitly encouraged the riot.
“I’m suing the BBC for putting words in my mouth, literally,” Trump grumbled to reporters earlier in the day, Monday. “They actually put terrible words in my mouth having to do with January 6th that I didn’t say.”
Trump’s legal team filed the 33-page lawsuit in a federal court in Miami, blasting the BBC’s documentary titled “Trump: A Second Chance” as “a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence” the 2024 election.
The colossal lawsuit is seeking $5 billion for defamation specifically and another $5 billion for violating Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
Last month, the BBC issued a formal apology, but insisted that it did not defame Trump. The BBC’s director-general and news CEO both stepped down last month. BBC chairman Samir Shah described the edit as an “error of judgment.”
The controversial documentary featured an edited clip of Trump telling rally-goers: “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you and we fight. We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country anymore.”
But that clip was an edit of three different sections of Trump’s speech and cut out a nearly hour-long gap to make all that appear as one sentence. Among the portions left out was Trump’s plea to fight “peacefully.”
Additionally, the BBC documentary took footage of the Proud Boys en route to the Capitol before Trump’s address and made it appear that they were inspired to march over after his remarks at the White House Ellipse.
Trump’s team is seeking a jury trial.
The BBC has countered that its documentary did not air in the US and is not on any of its streaming services. Trump’s team claims to have standing to sue because US subscribers to BritBox or Americans who use virtual private networks (VPNs) might have seen it.
Trump has fired off lawsuits against multiple media outlets over recent months, such as the Wall Street Journal, over its publication of a birthday card it alleged he wrote to late sex predator Jeffrey Epstein, and a $15 billion suit against the New York Times over its coverage of his 2024 campaign.
The president enjoyed a lucrative $16 million settlement from CBS News over his lawsuit contending the outlet’s marquee “60 Minutes” program made an unfair edit of former Vice President Kamala Harris to improve her public image.
The president also notched a $15 million settlement with ABC News over his complaint that anchor George Stephanopoulos wrongly stated he was found liable for rape, when the jury in the E. Jean Carroll case concluded he was liable for sexual abuse.
The Post contacted the BBC for comment.
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