Trump Announces Plans to Sue BBC Over Panorama Edit, Seeks Up to $5bn

Trump to take legal action over Panorama edit of January 6 speech

US President Donald Trump says he will sue the BBC next week over how Panorama edited a segment of his 6 January 2021 speech. Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One, Mr Trump said: "We'll sue them for anywhere between a billion and $5bn probably sometime next week." The BBC apologised for the edit but has declined to offer financial compensation.

The broadcaster acknowledged the clip had "unintentionally" created "the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action" and said it had reviewed the Panorama episode and its editorial processes. The apology came after a second, similarly edited clip broadcast on Newsnight in 2022 was highlighted by the Daily Telegraph.

Mr Trump told reporters he planned to raise the matter with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the coming weekend. Earlier in the week, his lawyers gave the BBC a deadline — 22:00 GMT (17:00 EST) on Friday 14 November — to retract, apologise and provide compensation, threatening a $1bn lawsuit if the corporation did not comply. The BBC replied before that deadline.

Searches of public court records showed no legal action had been filed at the time the latest reports were published. Federal and state courts in Florida, where a suit would likely be lodged, were closed for the weekend.

The controversy triggered the resignations of BBC director-general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness.

In an interview aired on GB News, recorded before Mr Trump confirmed legal action, he commented: "I've been doing this for a long time, I've never seen anything like that. That's, that's the most egregious. I think that was worse than the Kamala thing with CBS and 60 Minutes."

Earlier this year, Paramount Global settled a dispute with Mr Trump for $16m over a CBS interview segment involving Vice-President Kamala Harris, a development Mr Trump cited as precedent for pressing his claim.

BBC response and legal arguments

The BBC said it was sorry for the editing error but disputed there was a basis for a defamation claim. In a letter to Mr Trump's legal team, the corporation set out five main points explaining why it believed there was no case to answer:

1. The BBC said it did not hold rights to distribute the Panorama episode on US channels and did not make the programme available in the United States.
2. When the documentary was available on BBC iPlayer, access was restricted to viewers in the UK.
3. The broadcaster argued the edit did not cause material harm, pointing to Mr Trump's continued political prominence and subsequent electoral success.
4. It said the 12-second clip formed part of an hour-long programme and was not intended to be viewed in isolation; the edit was described as an editorial shortening rather than a deliberate attempt to mislead, and the BBC denied malice.
5. The BBC noted that opinion and political speech are strongly protected under US defamation law, making such claims difficult to sustain.

A BBC spokesperson also said that BBC chair Samir Shah had sent a personal letter to the White House expressing regret for the edit. Lawyers for the BBC have corresponded with Mr Trump's legal team in response to their demands.

As the situation develops, observers will be watching whether a formal lawsuit is filed and, if so, the jurisdiction in which it is brought and the legal theories the president's team advances.