BBC vows to defend itself as Trump sues for $10 billion, claiming defamation and unfair trade practice

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BBC vows to defend itself as Trump sues for $10 billion, claiming defamation and unfair trade practice

London — The BBC said Tuesday that it would defend itself in court after President Trump sued the British public broadcaster for defamation and violating Florida state practices law in relation to a documentary that edited together separate parts of his Jan. 6, 2021 speech in Washington.

Mr. Trump is seeking $10 billion in damages with his lawsuit, filed Monday in the Southern District of Florida.

In its statement, the BBC said it would “be defending this case,” but would not be commenting further on the ongoing legal proceedings.

In his complaint, Mr. Trump’s attorneys accuse the BBC of publishing “a false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction” of him in the BBC documentary that aired in the U.K. a week before the 2024 election.

The lawsuit claims the BBC, “intentionally and maliciously sought to fully mislead its viewers” by “splicing together” two clips from the same speech Mr. Trump gave to supporters in Washington before rioters overran the Capitol building. The two portions of the speech that were stuck together in the documentary were actually delivered by Mr. Trump nearly an hour apart, the lawsuit alleges.

The complaint accuses the BBC of violating the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, “by engaging in unfair methods of competition, unconscionable acts or practices and/or unfair or deceptive acts or practices.”

Mr. Trump had previously threatened to sue the BBC for $1 billion unless it retracted the documentary, issued an apology, and “appropriately” compensated him.

In November, the BBC issued an apology and published a retraction, but said in a statement that it “strongly disagree[s] that there’s a basis for a deflation claim.”

“BBC Chair Samir Shah has separately sent a personal letter to the White House making clear to President Trump that he and the Corporation are sorry for the edit of the President’s speech on 6 January 2021, which featured in the programme,” the BBC Press Office said in November. “The BBC has no plans to rebroadcast the documentary ‘Trump: A Second Chance?’ on any BBC platforms.”

BBC Director-General Tim Davie and the network’s head of news Deborah Turness both resigned over the controversy.

Mark Stephens, a U.K.-based international media lawyer, told CBS News that Mr. Trump’s lawsuit “is unfortunately ill founded and almost bound to fail.”

“The President’s case, all things being equal, should be thrown out of court at a summary dismissal,” he said.

Stephens said Mr. Trump’s legal team, even if they won their suit against the BBC, would not get a $10 billion settlement.

“The BBC is a very much a hand-to-mouth kind of organization. It doesn’t have profits. It doesn’t have shareholders. So literally any money is going to come from the British taxpayers, and I think they’ll feel pretty badly about paying President Trump for a court case of this kind,” Stephens said.

The U.K. has “a law which essentially does not recognize what we call ‘punitive damages’ — damages that intend to punish,” Stephens said. “In the U.K., the maximum compensatory damages he would be entitled to is $300,000 U.S. dollars. So even if he got, say, a million or $2 million at court, the British courts would only enforce $300,000.”