WASHINGTON – In a bold legal move, President Donald Trump launched a lawsuit on Monday, demanding $10 billion from the BBC. The former president accuses the British media giant of defamation and engaging in deceptive and unfair trade practices.
The complaint, stretching over 33 pages, alleges that the BBC aired content that was “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious” in its portrayal of Trump. The lawsuit suggests that the broadcaster’s actions were a deliberate effort to meddle in the upcoming 2024 U.S. presidential election.
According to Trump’s legal team, the BBC allegedly manipulated footage by “splicing together two entirely separate parts of President Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021,” thus distorting his original message.
Last month, the BBC had extended an apology to Trump regarding the editing of the January 6 speech. However, the broadcaster, funded by the public, denied any defamation claims despite Trump’s threats of legal action.
BBC chairman Samir Shah described the incident as an “error of judgment,” a statement that led to the resignations of the BBC’s top executive and its head of news.
The speech in question occurred shortly before a group of Trump’s supporters breached the U.S. Capitol. This event unfolded as Congress was on the verge of confirming President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, which Trump had baselessly claimed was robbed from him.
The BBC had broadcast the hourlong documentary — titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” — days before the 2024 U.S. presidential election. It spliced together three quotes from two sections of the 2021 speech, delivered almost an hour apart, into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.
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