Donald Trump threatens to sue BBC for $1bn over January 6 speech edit

Donald Trump has threatened to sue the BBC for at least $1bn over an edit of a speech he gave on January 6 2021 if it does not meet a series of demands by Friday, deepening a crisis at the broadcaster.

A spokesperson for the US president’s legal team said on Monday that the broadcaster had “defamed” Trump by “intentionally and deceitfully editing” the clip, which aired in October 2024, to “interfere” in last year’s presidential election.

Trump gave the speech on the day his supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington and the controversy over the edit of the footage has already led to the departure of two top BBC executives.

A letter from Trump’s lawyers seen by the FT told the BBC to “retract the false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements” about the president, giving a deadline of the end of this week.

It also demanded that the broadcaster issue an apology to the US president and compensate him for “the harm caused”.

The letter said that if such measures are not taken by Friday, Trump would have “no choice but to pursue any and all legal rights and remedies available to recover damages for the overwhelming financial and reputational harm that the BBC has caused him to suffer”.

The letter said that this would include “filing legal action for no less than $1,000,000,000 (One Billion Dollars) in damages”.

The BBC said it would “respond in due course” to the letter.

Trump has recently taken legal action against various US media outlets. In the past year, Paramount and ABC have agreed to pay $16mn and $15mn respectively to settle defamation lawsuits by Trump.

The threat to the BBC comes after its chair Samir Shah admitted on Monday that the broadcaster made an “error of judgement” in the way it edited footage of the speech, which the US president made on January 6 2021.

Shah said the BBC had concluded that its edit “did give the impression of a direct call for violent action” to his supporters, who stormed the Capitol building that day.

However, Shah also criticised a leaked memo that highlighted the BBC’s handling of the speech, among other allegations of bias in its coverage, saying it did not present a “full picture” of decision-making at the broadcaster.

The memo from Michael Prescott, a former political editor of the Sunday Times, led to the resignation on Sunday of director-general Tim Davie and BBC News head Deborah Turness.

It accused the BBC of a series of failures in its coverage of Trump, the Gaza war and the rights of transgender people. Prescott claimed his concerns had been ignored by BBC executives.

Shah said the Prescott memo, which has triggered a crisis at the public broadcaster, was a “personal account” and argued that it was “not true to say that concerns have been ignored”.

On Monday, Downing Street defended the corporation, expressing its “huge support for a strong and independent BBC”.

Asked if Sir Keir Starmer thought the BBC was “corrupt”, as Trump has claimed, the prime minister’s spokesperson replied: “No.” He added that Starmer did not think the broadcaster was institutionally biased.

But Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said on Monday that he spoke to Trump on Friday as the BBC crisis unfolded. He said the US president was “very, very unhappy” about it, adding: “I think it is very, very damaging.”

The departures of Davie and Turness came after the White House called the BBC a “leftist propaganda machine”.

One media executive close to the corporation described the row as representative of a wider “struggle for the soul of the BBC”, adding: “They need a much tougher chair.”

The BBC’s board has also been heavily criticised over its handling of the crisis, which has exposed rifts at the top of the organisation and sparked claims of a politically motivated coup against its leadership.

The board, which will decide the next director-general following Davie’s departure, is made up of the leaders of the major divisions of the corporation and five members appointed by the government.

The body failed to agree an apology last week despite the efforts by Turness to address the mounting scandal, according to three people with knowledge of the situation.

Nick Robinson, presenter on the BBC’s Today programme, said on Monday that “those at the top of the BBC have appeared paralysed for the past week — unable to agree what to say, not just about the editing of Donald Trump’s speech by Panorama, but also wider claims of institutional bias”.

Former Sun editor David Yelland described the leak of the letter and its fallout as a “coup” led by senior members of the BBC.

Liberal Democrat MP Anna Sabine said Davie’s resignation “raises serious questions about whether bad actors are interfering in the BBC’s independence”.

Robinson said that a majority of the board appeared to agree with Prescott “that there is a problem of institutional bias reflected in the coverage of Donald Trump, Gaza/Israel and trans rights”.

He added that “that argument has been led by one board member Sir Robbie Gibb” — previously director of communications for former Conservative prime minister Theresa May.

BBC executives said that Gibb, who was appointed to the board by Boris Johnson’s government in 2021 and had earlier spent 23 years at the BBC, had not been supportive of Turness and her handling of the newsroom in particular. But they added that he had wanted Davie to remain in his position.

Gibb and Prescott are friends, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

The Johnson government also appointed Prescott as external adviser to the BBC standards board.

One media executive said there “was leftwing bias at the BBC that they are constantly trying to fight, but the answer is not to bring in rightwing bias”.

Asked about allegations that members of the board had orchestrated a politically motivated coup, Shah said this was “a fanciful notion.”

“The board is not a bunch of wet people who just fall over,” he said.

Davie had survived previous crises, including over controversial social media posts by Gary Lineker and allegations over former presenter Huw Edwards.