Trump Threatens Legal Action Against BBC Over Edited Jan 6. Speech
President Donald Trump threatened legal action against the BBC on Monday over the broadcaster’s edited clip of his January 6 speech that aired in an investigative documentary, prompting the resignations of the director general and the head of news.
The BBC confirmed receipt of a letter from Trump’s lawyers hours after BBC chairman Samir Shah apologized for the edit as an “error of judgement” and described the president as “a litigious fellow.”
A BBC spokesperson said: “We will review the letter and respond directly in due course.”
“We are now considering how to reply to him,” Shah added.
Taking to Truth Social on Sunday, Trump accused BBC journalists of being “corrupt” over the “doctored” sequence in the 2024 Panorama documentary about the 2021 Capitol riot spotlighted by The Telegraph last week.
During the documentary, Trump appears to say: “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.”
That, however, was not his actual wording. Trump’s line was: “We’re gonna walk down, and I’ll be there with you, we’re gonna walk down, we’re gonna walk down any one you want but I think right here, we’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and we’re gonna cheer on our brave senators and congressmen.”
The broadcaster’s Director General Tim Davie and BBC News chief Deborah Turness resigned over the weekend amid the fallout.
Trump’s lawyers have not yet disclosed the substance of the complaint beyond threatening action.
In the past year, Trump settled with Paramount Global for $16 million over a Kamala Harris edit on CBS’ 60 Minutes and separately last year with ABC for $15 million over remarks on This Week by anchor George Stephanopoulos.
