Donald Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC on Monday, Dec. 15, alleging that the British broadcaster defamed him by misleadingly editing his Jan. 6, 2021, speech at the White House Ellipse. The suit targets a 2024 BBC documentary that Trump claims spliced together separate portions of his remarks to falsely suggest he directly incited the Capitol riot.
“They literally put words in my mouth,” Trump said earlier Monday. “They attributed to me statements about January 6th that I never said.”
Trump’s legal team submitted the 33-page complaint in federal court in Miami, accusing the documentary—Trump: A Second Chance—of being a “brazen attempt to interfere in and influence” the 2024 presidential election. The lawsuit seeks $5 billion in damages for defamation and an additional $5 billion for alleged violations of Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
Although the BBC issued a formal apology last month, it maintained that the documentary did not defame Trump. Following the controversy, the BBC’s director-general and news CEO resigned, and chairman Samir Shah acknowledged the edit was an “error of judgment.”
The disputed documentary included a clip showing Trump telling supporters, “We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you and we fight. We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country anymore.” According to the lawsuit, that clip was created by combining three separate segments of the speech while removing a nearly hour-long gap and omitting Trump’s call to act “peacefully.”
The film also allegedly used footage of Proud Boys members heading toward the Capitol before Trump’s speech, presenting it as though their actions were prompted by his remarks.
Trump’s team is requesting a jury trial. The BBC has argued that the documentary did not air in the United States and is unavailable on its streaming platforms. However, Trump’s attorneys contend that U.S. viewers could have accessed it through BritBox subscriptions or by using virtual private networks (VPNs).
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