US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he may file a million-dollar lawsuit against the BBC next week over its misleading edition of a speech by the president in 2021. The British network apologized on Thursday but refused to compensate him financially for the mistake.
“We will ask for a sum between 1,000 and 5,000 million dollars (between 860 and 4,600 million euros),” Trump assured on the presidential plane in Washington before leaving for Florida. The Republican added that the lawsuit could be filed next week.
The BBC acknowledged this week that its Panorama program used a “misleading” edition of the speech, which occurred on the day of the violent storming of the Capitol, by splicing together snippets from different moments that could alter its meaning.
Trump’s lawyers argue that that edition omitted the phrase in which he asked his followers to march “peacefully and patriotically,” which they said damaged his reputation by linking him to the violent acts of that day. The British network apologized and called the case an “error of judgment,” although it says there is no legal basis for a defamation lawsuit related to the January 6 context.
