US President Donald Trump has sued the BBC for $10 billion, alleging defamation and unfair practices over the editing of his January 6, 2021 speech. The BBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press
-1765862340211_d.png "Trump sues BBC for USD 10 billion over editing of his Jan 6 speech")
US president Donald Trump. File Pic
US President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit seeking USD 10 billion in damages from the BBC, accusing the British broadcaster of defamation as well as deceptive and unfair trade practices.
The 33-page lawsuit, filed on Monday, accuses the BBC of broadcasting a "false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction of President Trump", calling it 'a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence' the 2024 US presidential election.
It accused the BBC of "splicing together two entirely separate parts of President Trump's speech on January 6, 2021" in order to "intentionally misrepresent the meaning of what President Trump said".
The BBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
The broadcaster had apologised last month to Trump over the edit of the Jan 6 speech.
But the publicly funded broadcaster rejected claims it had defamed him, after Trump threatened legal action.
BBC chairman Samir Shah had called it an "error of judgment", which triggered the resignations of the BBC's top executive and its head of news.
The speech took place before some of Trump's supporters stormed the US Capitol as Congress was poised to certify President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election that Trump falsely alleged was stolen from him.
The BBC had broadcast the hourlong documentary titled Trump: A Second Chance? days before the 2024 US 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.
Trump said earlier Monday that he was suing the BBC "for putting words in my mouth".
"They actually put terrible words in my mouth having to do with Jan 6 that I didn't say, and they're beautiful words, that I said, right?" the president said unprompted during an appearance in the Oval Office.
"They're beautiful words, talking about patriotism and all of the good things that I said. They didn't say that, but they put terrible words".
The president's lawsuit was filed in Florida. Deadlines to bring the case in British courts expired more than a year ago.
Legal experts have brought up potential challenges to a case in the US given that the documentary was not shown in the country.
The 103-year-old BBC is a national institution funded through an annual license fee of 174.50 pounds ($230) paid by every household that watches live TV or BBC content.
Bound by the terms of its charter to be impartial, it typically faces especially intense scrutiny and criticism from both conservatives and liberals.
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