Donald Trump tells BBC to apologise by Friday or face billion-dollar legal claim
A BBC spokesperson said: “We will review the letter and respond directly in due course.”
The US president threatened legal action after a report from Michael Prescott, a former external adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee, raised concerns that a speech Mr Trump had made before the attack on the US Capitol on January 6 2021 had been selectively edited by the BBC.
BBC chairman Samir Shah has apologised for an “error of judgment” and two of the corporation’s most senior figures – chief executive of BBC News Deborah Turness and director-general Tim Davie – resigned from their positions on Sunday.
The Prescott memo raised concerns about the way clips of Mr Trump’s speech were spliced together to make it appear he had told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them to “fight like hell”.
The letter, from Trump counsel Alejandro Brito, demands that “false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements” made about Mr Trump must be retracted immediately.
Critics said the Panorama edit was misleading and removed a section where Mr Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.
A BBC spokesperson said: “We will review the letter and respond directly in due course.”
Mr Trump’s lawyer adds: “Failure to comply will leave President Trump with 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, with all rights and remedies being expressly reserved by President Trump.”
The letter says if the BBC “does not comply” Mr Trump will be “left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights, all of which are expressly reserved and are not waived, including by filing legal action for no less than 1,000,000,000 dollars in damages.”
The White House may also consider restricting the corporation’s access to “open press events” as a result of the edit, according to a senior official quoted in the Telegraph.
Mr Trump has a history of suing news organisations in the US and previously settled a defamation case against ABC News after star anchor George Stephanopoulos falsely said he had been found “liable for rape”.
Mr Trump also settled a legal dispute with CBS News over an interview it broadcast on its 60 Minutes programme with former vice president Kamala Harris.
