Trump sues BBC for defamation over edited January 6 speech, alleges false call to storm Capitol
Trump accused Britain’s publicly owned broadcaster of defaming him by splicing together parts of his January 6, 2021 speech, including a segment where he told supporters to march on the Capitol and another in which he said “fight like hell”
- Dec 16, 2025,
- Updated Dec 16, 2025 7:41 AM IST
President Donald Trump on Monday took his legal fight with the media beyond US borders, suing the BBC over edited footage of his January 6 speech that he says falsely portrayed him as urging supporters to storm the US Capitol. The lawsuit opens an international front in Trump’s broader campaign against coverage he argues is misleading, unfair, and damaging to his reputation.
Trump accused Britain’s publicly owned broadcaster of defaming him by splicing together parts of his January 6, 2021 speech, including a segment where he told supporters to march on the Capitol and another in which he said “fight like hell.” The edit, he alleges, omitted a key portion where he called for peaceful protest, creating a misleading impression of a direct call for violence.
In the lawsuit filed Monday in Miami federal court, Trump alleges the BBC defamed him and violated a Florida law that bars deceptive and unfair trade practices. He is seeking $5 billion in damages for each of the lawsuit’s two counts.
BBC apologises
The BBC has apologised to Trump, admitted an error of judgment, and acknowledged that the edit gave the mistaken impression that he had made a direct call for violent action. However, the broadcaster has maintained that there is no legal basis for a lawsuit.
Trump, in the court filing, said the BBC, despite its apology, “has made no showing of actual remorse for its wrongdoing nor meaningful institutional changes to prevent future journalistic abuses.”
A spokesman for Trump’s legal team said in a statement that the BBC “has a long pattern of deceiving its audience in coverage of President Trump, all in service of its own leftist political agenda.”
Wider crisis at BBC
The case comes amid a broader crisis at the BBC. Facing one of the biggest challenges in its 103-year history, the broadcaster has said it has no plans to rebroadcast the documentary at the centre of the dispute on any of its platforms. The controversy over the clip, which aired on the BBC’s “Panorama” documentary show shortly before the 2024 presidential election, triggered a public relations storm and led to the resignations of the organisation’s two most senior officials.
The documentary drew further scrutiny after the leak of a BBC memo by an external standards adviser that raised concerns about how the footage was edited, as part of a wider investigation into political bias at the publicly funded broadcaster. The programme was not broadcast in the United States.
UK lawyers have noted that the BBC’s funding model, through a mandatory licence fee on all television viewers, could make any potential payout to Trump politically fraught.
Trump’s lawyers argue that the edit caused him overwhelming reputational and financial harm. Legal experts say Trump may have chosen to sue in the United States because defamation claims in Britain must be brought within a year of publication, a window that has closed for the “Panorama” episode.
The January 6 attack on the US Capitol was aimed at blocking Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory over Trump in the 2020 US election.
(With inputs from Reuters)
President Donald Trump on Monday took his legal fight with the media beyond US borders, suing the BBC over edited footage of his January 6 speech that he says falsely portrayed him as urging supporters to storm the US Capitol. The lawsuit opens an international front in Trump’s broader campaign against coverage he argues is misleading, unfair, and damaging to his reputation.
Trump accused Britain’s publicly owned broadcaster of defaming him by splicing together parts of his January 6, 2021 speech, including a segment where he told supporters to march on the Capitol and another in which he said “fight like hell.” The edit, he alleges, omitted a key portion where he called for peaceful protest, creating a misleading impression of a direct call for violence.
In the lawsuit filed Monday in Miami federal court, Trump alleges the BBC defamed him and violated a Florida law that bars deceptive and unfair trade practices. He is seeking $5 billion in damages for each of the lawsuit’s two counts.
BBC apologises
The BBC has apologised to Trump, admitted an error of judgment, and acknowledged that the edit gave the mistaken impression that he had made a direct call for violent action. However, the broadcaster has maintained that there is no legal basis for a lawsuit.
Trump, in the court filing, said the BBC, despite its apology, “has made no showing of actual remorse for its wrongdoing nor meaningful institutional changes to prevent future journalistic abuses.”
A spokesman for Trump’s legal team said in a statement that the BBC “has a long pattern of deceiving its audience in coverage of President Trump, all in service of its own leftist political agenda.”
Wider crisis at BBC
The case comes amid a broader crisis at the BBC. Facing one of the biggest challenges in its 103-year history, the broadcaster has said it has no plans to rebroadcast the documentary at the centre of the dispute on any of its platforms. The controversy over the clip, which aired on the BBC’s “Panorama” documentary show shortly before the 2024 presidential election, triggered a public relations storm and led to the resignations of the organisation’s two most senior officials.
The documentary drew further scrutiny after the leak of a BBC memo by an external standards adviser that raised concerns about how the footage was edited, as part of a wider investigation into political bias at the publicly funded broadcaster. The programme was not broadcast in the United States.
UK lawyers have noted that the BBC’s funding model, through a mandatory licence fee on all television viewers, could make any potential payout to Trump politically fraught.
Trump’s lawyers argue that the edit caused him overwhelming reputational and financial harm. Legal experts say Trump may have chosen to sue in the United States because defamation claims in Britain must be brought within a year of publication, a window that has closed for the “Panorama” episode.
The January 6 attack on the US Capitol was aimed at blocking Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory over Trump in the 2020 US election.
(With inputs from Reuters)