Trump Threatens to Sue BBC for $1 Billion Over Doctored Panorama Clip and Demands Full Retraction
Donald Trump has put the BBC on notice that he plans to sue them for $1 billion (£760 million) after they doctored his speech and broadcast it on Panorama, it has emerged today. The US President has set a deadline of 5pm EST (10pm in the UK) this Friday to 'comply' with his demands. A letter sent to BBC Chairman Samir Shah at Television Centre by his legal team in Florida said: 'President 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 (One Billion Dollars) in damages. 'Due to their salacious nature, the fabricated statements that were aired by the BBC have been widely disseminated throughout various digital mediums, which have reached tens of millions of people worldwide. Consequently, the BBC has caused President Trump to suffer overwhelming financial and reputational harm.' The letter from his lawyer, Alejandro Brito, added: 'The BBC is on notice.' Mr Brito says Mr Trump has three demands. By close of business on Friday the BBC must issue a full and fair retraction, provide an apology and 'appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused'. Mr Trump fired off a legal letter after it emerged Panorama had selectively edited his speech before the January 6 Capitol riot to remove a section where he told supporters to demonstrate peacefully. The scandal has brought down the Director General Tim Davie and the CEO of BBC News, Deborah Turness. A BBC spokesman said: 'We will review the letter and respond directly in due course.' It came as the corporation's chairman Samir Shah made a humbling apology to Mr Trump and admitted he was willing to say sorry in person. 'He's a litigious fellow. So we should be prepared for all outcomes', he said when asked if he knew whether the President would sue. Donald Trump last night condemned the 'corrupt' BBC as he tore into director-general Tim Davie and the corporation. He has threatened to sue for $1billion Director-general Tim Davie quit the BBC last night after five years in the corporation's top job Deborah Turness (pictured centre today), chief executive of BBC News, hit back at Trump as she arrived at Broadcasting House this morning Mr Trump said last night that the BBC is a 'corrupt' organisation and called Tim Davie and Deborah Turness, who have resigned over the scandal, 'very dishonest people'. A spokesman for Mr Trump's legal team told NBC: 'The BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally and deceitfully editing its documentary in order to try and interfere in the Presidential Election. President Trump will continue to hold accountable those who traffic in lies, deception, and fake news.' His legal team have set out three key demands for the BBC to meet: The above-referenced false, defamatory, malicious, disparaging, and inflammatory statements were published to deliberately denigrate President Trump. The timing of the fabricated documentary is evident. The BBC's reckless disregard for the truth underscores the actual malice behind the decision to publish the wrongful content, given the plain falsity of the statements. Accordingly, President Trump hereby demands that you: (1) immediately issue a full and fair retraction of the documentary and any and all other false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading, and inflammatory statements about President Trump in as conspicuous a manner as they were originally published; (2) immediately issue an apology for the false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading, and inflammatory statements about President Trump; and (3) appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused. Moreover, please allow this letter to serve as notice to you, to your affiliated entities, subsidiaries, to all of their employees, and any other person acting on behalf of or in concert with the BBC, to preserve any and all evidence related in any way to the above-mentioned malicious, false, and defamatory statements the BBC published, and any other statements that the BBC has published regarding President Trump. By way of this letter, the BBC is hereby directed not to destroy, conceal, or alter any paper or electronic files, physical evidence, and/or other data relating in any way, no matter how remote, to your false claims regarding President Trump, and/or the circumstances leading to their dissemination, including, but not limited to: (1) all communications between you and any third party in any way related to your wrongful claims regarding President Trump; (2) all sources for your false claims regarding President Trump; (3) any and all documents and data referring to, reflecting, or relating to communications between you and any such thirdparties or sources regarding your false claims regarding President Trump; and (4) any and all documents in any way related to your false claims regarding President Trump. This includes any information alleged to be protected by Florida Statute § 90.5015. Monarch Air Group, LLC v. Journalism Dev. Network, Inc., No. 23-CV-61256, 2025 WL 445491, at *1 (S.D. Fla. Feb. 10, 2025) (interpreting Fla. Stat. § 90.5015 and explaining that the Eleventh Circuit 'recognizes a qualified privilege for journalists, allowing them to resist compelled disclosure of their professional news gathering efforts. This privilege shields reporters in both criminal and civil proceedings.') (quoting United States v. Capers, 708 F.3d 1286, 1303 (11th Cir. 2013)). I understand that many records and files are maintained electronically. However, this letter specifically requests that all paper and hard copy originals be maintained and preserved in their original format. By the same token, electronic documents and the storage media on which they reside may contain relevant, discoverable information beyond that which may be found in printed documents. Therefore, even where a paper copy exists and has been preserved, please preserve and maintain all electronically stored documents in their original native format, including all metadata. This preservation demand specifically encompasses any and all electronic documents, including but not limited to, all word-processed files, emails, spreadsheets, all databases, log files, and any other electronically stored and/or generated documents or files. If the BBC does not comply with the above by November 14, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. EST, President 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 (One Billion Dollars) in damages. The BBC is on notice. Mr Trump last night condemned the BBC as 'corrupt' as he tore into Mr Davie after he resigned in disgrace over a doctored video. When asked about President Trump's comments, an emotional Ms Turness said: 'Of course our journalists aren't corrupt. Our journalists are hardworking people who strive for impartiality and I will stand by their journalism.' Explaining why she had quit, she went on: 'I would like to say it has been the privilege of my career to serve as the CEO of BBC News and to work with our brilliant team of journalists.\n\n'I stepped down over the weekend because the buck stops with me. But I'd like to make one thing very clear, BBC News is not institutionally biased. That's why it's the world's most trusted news provider.' Hours earlier, Mr Robinson said Tim Davie and BBC News CEO Ms Turness had still not explained 'what they had actually got wrong' when they resigned yesterday over the editing of the Trump speech. Mr Robinson said that there were 'no complaints about the editing of Donald Trump's speech' when it was broadcast in 2024. He also said that some listeners were tired of hearing 'the BBC talking about itself', adding that there is 'plenty of other news' in the world. Mr Robinson had launched into his monologue just after the 6.30am news bulletin today, where he said the BBC's board was in a state of 'paralysis'. And in what some listeners suggested was him playing down the impartiality row he said: 'I understand that at the time of the transmission of the Panorama film in 2024, there were no complaints about the editing of Donald Trump's speech.' He added: 'In her resignation statement Deborah Turness said the ongoing controversy has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC. Neither she nor Tim Davie explained what they had actually got wrong.' After a 15 minute section on the scandal, where he discussed what will happen next with two BBC reporters, Mr Robinson finished by saying: 'As we know patience can wear thin about the BBC talking about itself, there is plenty other news. We will be talking about the NHS, about homelessness and let's talk about other news from Belgium, important news.' Mr Trump had also shared a Daily Mail column from Boris Johnson, where the former prime minister vowed to withhold his licence fee unless Mr Davie broke his silence on the incident or resigned, which he later did. The Mail on Sunday further revealed how two of the BBC's leading presenters claimed that airing concerns about its coverage was part of a political campaign to 'destroy' the corporation. Mr Robinson's remarks – endorsed by veteran reporter John Simpson – were swiftly condemned as 'ridiculous' and 'arrogant' by Mr Johnson. And today Mr Robinson spoke out again, this time on the BBC's flagship radio news programme in a monologue lasting several minutes. He said: 'Ever since rumours of the resignation surfaced, I have been piecing together what happened that led to this crisis.\n\n'Those at the top of the BBC have appeared paralysed last week, unable to agree what to say - not just about the editing of that speech, but wider claims of institutional bias.\n\n'One source described the arguments ever since the Telegraph leaked a memo by a former adviser to the BBC Board as 'like armed combat', another alleged 'political interference' after what they described as a 'hostile takeover' of parts of the BBC.' The presenter said a statement, which was being prepared by BBC News executives, last week was set to apologise for the mistake.\n He said they had agreed a statement saying it had 'been a mistake to edit together two different sections of President Trump's speech on the day of the Capitol Hill riots, without clearly signalling to the audience that edit had been made'.\n\nIt would have said 'despite this error, there was no intention to mislead the audience' Mr Robinson added. The row began over an edition of the flagship current affairs programme Panorama in which two clips of Trump's speech were spliced together, despite having been said an hour apart. In a section of Trump: A Second Chance? which focused on the Capitol Hill riots on January 6, the president was shown telling his supporters that he was going to walk to the Capitol with them to 'fight like hell' when in fact what he said was that he would walk with them 'to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard'. Concerns about the documentary were raised by Michael Prescott, a former external adviser to the BBC's editorial standards committee. Last night President Trump branded the broadcaster a 'terrible thing for democracy' and said its 'corrupt journalists' had been exposed. In a 19-page document, Mr Prescott accused the corporation of doctoring a speech by Mr Trump and censoring the debate on transgender issues, and said its Gaza coverage had been biased. Mr Robinson added: 'The argument which raged on the BBC board ensured neither defended itself nor admitted its mistakes for day after long day after the leaking of the Prescott dossier alleging institutional bias.' 'As criticism mounted from the White House, from former prime minister Boris Johnson and many others, the BBC merely said that it would not comment on leaked documents, whilst promising the chairman Samir Shah would respond in writing to MPs on the culture, media and sport select committee.' Mr Robinson then singled out board member Sir Robbie Gibb over his views that the BBC did have a problem of institutional bias. He added: 'A majority of the BBC board appear to agree with their editorial adviser, that there is a problem of institutional bias reflected in that coverage, not just of Donald Trump but of Gaza and Israel and also trans rights.' That argument has been led in particular by one board member, Sir Robbie Gibb - a former BBC executive in charge of political programmes, who became Prime Minister Theresa May's Downing Street Director of Communications, is one of those involved in the founding of GB News and a supporter of the Conservative Party. 'Friends of Sir Robbie insist he has repeatedly and consistently supported Tim Davie as director general and wanted him to stay.' In a final thought to listeners, Mr Robinson said 'at the time of the transmission of the Panorama film back in 2024, there were no complaints about the editing of Donald Trump's speech'. Mr Davie's resignation brings an end to a 20-year career at the BBC which saw him rise from director of marketing, communications and audiences. In a post on Truth Social on Sunday night, Trump wrote: 'The TOP people in the BBC, including TIM DAVIE, the BOSS, are all quitting/FIRED, because they were caught 'doctoring' my very good (PERFECT!) speech of January 6th.\n\n'These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election. On top of everything else, they are from a Foreign Country, one that many consider our Number One Ally. What a terrible thing for Democracy!' Mr Davie said he wanted to hand over to a new director-general ahead of Royal Charter renewal negotiations with the Government, which will decide the broadcaster's future funding model. In a note to staff on Sunday, he said: 'Like all public organisations, the BBC is not perfect, and we must always be open, transparent and accountable. While not being the only reason, the current debate around BBC News has understandably contributed to my decision.\n\n'Overall the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made and as director-general I have to take ultimate responsibility.' BBC chairman Mr Shah said: 'This is a sad day for the BBC. Tim has been an outstanding director-general for the last five years. He has had the full support of me and the board throughout. However, I understand the continued pressure on him, personally and professionally, which has led him to take this decision. The whole board respects the decision and the reasons for it.' Director-general Tim Davie quit the BBC last night after five years in the corporation's top job Ms Turness, who was poached from ITN by Mr Davie three years ago, told staff: 'The ongoing controversy around the Panorama on President Trump has reached a stage where it is causing damage to the BBC – an institution that I love. In public life, leaders need to be fully accountable, and that is why I am stepping down. 'While mistakes have been made, I want to be absolutely clear recent allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong.' Leading politicians have said the BBC must change to rebuild its reputation. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said the corporation needs 'to turn a new leaf' while Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch called for 'top-to-bottom' reform. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said it was the BBC's 'last chance', adding: 'I don't want to abolish the BBC, I make that very clear, but we cannot have the BBC being seen to be our main national news broadcaster if it cannot perform in a straightforward, simple, unbiased way.' Government minister Louise Sandher-Jones rejected suggestions the BBC was institutionally biased. The US President shared a Daily Mail column from Boris Johnson, where the former Prime Minister vowed to withhold his licence fee The veterans minister told Sky News: 'When you look at the huge range of domestic issues, local issues, international issues, that it has to cover, I think its output is very trusted. 'When I speak to people who've got very strongly held views on those, they're still using the BBC for a lot of their information, it's forming their views on this.\n 'I think we can all point to elements of BBC broadcasting of news and say 'well, that reflects my views, and that doesn't' and that's absolutely right, that we should be able to say that.' Asked about Trump's comments on the BBC, she said: 'President Trump will obviously speak for himself.\n 'Tim Davie and Deborah Turness have been quite clear that it's their decision that they've stepped down and I note that the board has thanked them for their service and had said that it had supported them.\n'But they've, as they've said, taken accountability for what the BBC has put out. I think it is very important that public figures have accountability.' The BBC's board has not properly defended the corporation, a former Downing Street communications chief has suggested. Sir Craig Oliver, who is also a former BBC news executive, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the problems at the corporation 'matter', adding 'the BBC is an enormous institution with a huge impact on British life'.\n 'What I think has gone wrong here, I think is really an issue of the governance of the institution,' Sir Craig said. 'We're living in a fast-moving digital world where there are a lot of people who want to attack the BBC, and what we've seen is really a vacuum that has been created.\n 'It's been obvious for days now that the BBC needed to step up, explain, apologise, move on.\n 'And what we've seen is the governance of the BBC saying, 'we'll get back to you on Monday - we'll leave that for days. We'll allow the President of the United States to be attacking the institution, and we're not going to properly defend it'.'
BBC Responds and Leaders Resign as Trump Escalates Legal Action
A BBC spokesman said: 'We will review the letter and respond directly in due course.' It came as the corporation's chairman Samir Shah made a humbling apology to Mr Trump and admitted he was willing to say sorry in person. 'He's a litigious fellow. So we should be prepared for all outcomes', he said when asked if he knew whether the President would sue. Donald Trump last night condemned the 'corrupt' BBC as he tore into director-general Tim Davie and the corporation. He has threatened to sue for $1billion. Director-general Tim Davie quit the BBC last night after five years in the corporation's top job. Deborah Turness (pictured centre today), chief executive of BBC News, hit back at Trump as she arrived at Broadcasting House this morning. Mr Trump said last night that the BBC is a 'corrupt' organisation and called Tim Davie and Deborah Turness, who have resigned over the scandal, 'very dishonest people'. A spokesman for Mr Trump's legal team told NBC: 'The BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally and deceitfully editing its documentary in order to try and interfere in the Presidential Election. President Trump will continue to hold accountable those who traffic in lies, deception, and fake news.' Mr Shah used his first remarks since the resignations to mount a defence of the corporation, saying there were 'occasions when the BBC gets things wrong' but that the leaked Prescott dossier did not present the full picture. 'Michael Prescott's memo gives only a partial description of the evidence that editorial guidelines and standards committee received and considered,' he said. 'There is another view that has gained currency in the coverage that the BBC has done nothing to tackle these problems. That is also simply not true.' 'Over the three years Mr Prescott was an adviser to the EGSC, the BBC has: published corrections where we have got things wrong; changed editorial guidance to make the BBC's position on issues clearer; made changes to leadership where the problems point to underlying issues; and carried out formal disciplinary measures.'
Legal Demands, Evidence Preservation, and the Florida Law Footing
The body of this letter serves to outline the legal demands and the basis in Florida law. The revelation includes a detailed demand that the BBC preserve all evidence related to the defamatory statements and to not destroy or alter any documents. 'Dear All: This law firm serves as litigation counsel for President Donald J. Trump (hereinafter referred to as 'President Trump'). Please direct all future correspondence relating to this matter to my attention. This correspondence serves as a demand under Florida Statute § 770.011 that you immediately retract the false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements made about President Trump, which were published in a Panorama documentary that was fabricated and aired by the BBC. 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.' In the Panorama documentary, titled 'Trump: A Second Chance,' which was first broadcast on October 28, 2024—a week before the 2024 United States presidential election—the BBC intentionally sought to completely mislead its viewers by splicing together three separate parts of President Trump's speech to supporters on January 6, 2021. The documentary showed President 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 going to have a country anymore.' This fabricated depiction of President Trump was false and defamatory given that President Trump's actual and full remarks were: 'We're going to walk down, and I'll be there with you, we're going to walk down, we're going to walk down any one of you but I think right here, we're going to walk down to the Capitol and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressman and women.' Moreover, the BBC edited out President Trump saying, 'I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.' Thus, as set forth in an internal whistleblower memorandum, the BBC's segment maliciously made it appear that President Trump '[said] things [he] never actually said,' by editing together footage from the start of the speech with a separate quote early an hour later. Due to their salacious nature, the fabricated statements that were aired by the BBC have been widely disseminated throughout various digital mediums, which have reached tens of millions of people worldwide. Consequently, the BBC has caused President Trump to suffer overwhelming financial and reputational harm. A. Applicable law. Words are defamatory under Florida law when 'they tend to subject one to hatred, distrust, ridicule, contempt or disgrace or tend to injure one in one's business or profession.' Johnston v. Borders, 36 F.4th 1254, 1275 (11th Cir. 2022) (quoting Am. Airlines, Inc. v. Geddes, 960 So. 2d 830, 833 (Fla. 3d DCA 2007) (citation and quotation marks omitted)). Statements are defamatory if 'the defendant juxtaposes a series of facts so as to imply a defamatory connection between them, or creates a defamatory implication by omitting facts.' Johnston v. Borders, 36 F.4th 1254, 1275 (11th Cir. 2022) (quoting Jews for Jesus, 997 So. 2d at 1108). Further, 'where the speaker or writer neglects to provide the audience with an adequate factual foundation prior to engaging in the offending discourse, liability may arise.' See Zambrano v. Devanesan, 484 So. 2d 603, 607 (Fla. 4th DCA 1986). Even if the BBC attempts to whitewash its conduct as simply an expression of its opinions, Florida law makes clear that such a defense will not absolve its liability. See Dershowitz v. Cable News Network, Inc., 541 F. Supp. 3d 1354, 1362 (S.D. Fla. 2021); see also Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co., 497 U.S. 1, 18-19 (1990) ('Even if the speaker states the facts upon which he bases his opinion, if those facts are either incorrect or incomplete, or if his assessment of them is erroneous, the statement may still imply a false assertion of fact. Simply couching such statements in terms of opinion does not dispel these implications.') (emphasis added); see also Eastern Air Lines, Inc. v. Gellert, 438 So. 2d 923, 927 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983) ('[A] statement that although ostensibly in the form of an opinion 'implies the allegation of undisclosed defamatory facts as the basis for the opinion' is actionable.') (emphasis added). Consequently, the BBC lacks any viable defense to the overwhelming reputational and financial harm it has caused President Trump to suffer B. Demand. The above-referenced false, defamatory, malicious, disparaging, and inflammatory statements were published to deliberately denigrate President Trump. The timing of the fabricated documentary is evident. The BBC's reckless disregard for the truth underscores the actual malice behind the decision to publish the wrongful content, given the plain falsity of the statements. Accordingly, President Trump hereby demands that you: (1) immediately issue a full and fair retraction of the documentary and any and all other false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading, and inflammatory statements about President Trump in as conspicuous a manner as they were originally published; (2) immediately issue an apology for the false, defamatory, disparaging, misleading, and inflammatory statements about President Trump; and (3) appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused. Moreover, please allow this letter to serve as notice to you, to your affiliated entities, subsidiaries, to all of their employees, and any other person acting on behalf of or in concert with the BBC, to preserve any and all evidence related in any way to the above-mentioned malicious, false, and defamatory statements the BBC published, and any other statements that the BBC has published regarding President Trump. By way of this letter, the BBC is hereby directed not to destroy, conceal, or alter any paper or electronic files, physical evidence, and/or other data relating in any way, no matter how remote, to your false claims regarding President Trump, and/or the circumstances leading to their dissemination, including, but not limited to: (1) all communications between you and any third party in any way related to your wrongful claims regarding President Trump; (2) all sources for your false claims regarding President Trump; (3) any and all documents and data referring to, reflecting, or relating to communications between you and any such thirdparties or sources regarding your false claims regarding President Trump; and (4) any and all documents in any way related to your false claims regarding President Trump. This includes any information alleged to be protected by Florida Statute § 90.5015. Monarch Air Group, LLC v. Journalism Dev. Network, Inc., No. 23-CV-61256, 2025 WL 445491, at *1 (S.D. Fla. Feb. 10, 2025) (interpreting Fla. Stat. § 90.5015 and explaining that the Eleventh Circuit 'recognizes a qualified privilege for journalists, allowing them to resist compelled disclosure of their professional news gathering efforts. This privilege shields reporters in both criminal and civil proceedings.') (quoting United States v. Capers, 708 F.3d 1286, 1303 (11th Cir. 2013)). I understand that many records and files are maintained electronically. However, this letter specifically requests that all paper and hard copy originals be maintained and preserved in their original format. By the same token, electronic documents and the storage media on which they reside may contain relevant, discoverable information beyond that which may be found in printed documents. Therefore, even where a paper copy exists and has been preserved, please preserve and maintain all electronically stored documents in their original native format, including all metadata. This preservation demand specifically encompasses any and all electronic documents, including but not limited to, all word-processed files, emails, spreadsheets, all databases, log files, and any other electronically stored and/or generated documents or files. If the BBC does not comply with the above by November 14, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. EST, President 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 (One Billion Dollars) in damages. The BBC is on notice.
