Donald Trump last night threatened to sue the BBC for $1 billion unless he gets a grovelling apology within days.
As the embattled national broadcaster admitted to an ‘error of judgment’ when it doctored footage of a 2021 speech by Mr Trump, the US President’s lawyers put the BBC ‘on notice’.
In a scathing letter, they demanded – by Friday night – a full retraction, immediate apology and an offer of compensation over the ‘fabricated depiction of President Trump’.
The move marks a major escalation in an already unprecedented crisis for the BBC after the impartiality row claimed the scalps of director-general Tim Davie and director of news Deborah Turness on Sunday night.
The furore blew up last week when it emerged that Panorama aired a misleading edit of Mr Trump appearing to explicitly encourage violence in the hours before the January 6 Capitol Hill riot.
Yesterday, BBC chairman Samir Shah admitted to an ‘error of judgment’ over the editing but rejected claims of systemic bias and stopped short of issuing a direct apology to Mr Trump.
He confirmed that he had received communication from the President’s legal team and was considering making a formal apology.
‘But he’s a litigious fellow. So we should be prepared for all outcomes,’ he added. A BBC spokesman said it ‘will review the letter and respond directly in due course’.
In a scathing letter, lawyers demanded – by Friday night – a full retraction, immediate apology and an offer of compensation over the ‘fabricated depiction of President Trump’
Yesterday, BBC chairman Samir Shah (above) admitted to an ‘error of judgment’ over the editing but rejected claims of systemic bias and stopped short of issuing a direct apology to Mr Trump
In the legal letter, Mr Trump’s lawyer, Alejandro Brito, demands that ‘false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements’ made about the President are retracted immediately.
The letter warns: ‘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.’
If the BBC fails to respond by the looming deadline, Mr Trump will be ‘left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights… including by filing legal action for no less than 1,000,000,000 dollars (£760 million) in damages,’ the letter states.
The correspondence, dated November 9, bluntly concludes: ‘The BBC is on notice. PLEASE GOVERN YOURSELF ACCORDINGLY.’
A spokesman for Mr Trump’s legal team said: ‘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.’
In other developments yesterday:
- A civil war broke out between the BBC board and its news operation over the impartiality row, with fingers being pointed from both sides;
- There were suggestions it may take as long as nine months to find a replacement for Mr Davie, but he is said to have ‘had enough’ and will look to relinquish the role sooner;
- The BBC was on alert for more possible resignations as critics called for a clear-out of executives;
- Downing Street acknowledged mistakes had been made but backed the corporation, despite growing calls to scrap the licence fee.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said he had spoken to Mr Trump on Friday about the scandal and the President was ‘absolutely enraged’ when concerns over the clip first emerged in a leaked document. ‘He just said to me: ‘Is this how you treat your best ally?’ he said.
The airing of the Panorama documentary, Trump: A Second Chance?, in the week before the US went to the ballot box amounted to ‘election interference’ by the BBC, Mr Farage said.
Mr Trump was ‘stitched up on the eve of a national election’, he added.
Director-general Tim Davie quit the BBC on Sunday after five years in the corporation’s top job
The threat of legal action is likely to put further pressure on the corporation, which was labelled ‘corrupt’ and ‘dishonest’ by the President following Sunday night’s shock double resignation.
However, a defiant Ms Turness defended the corporation and her colleagues against the claims.
‘Of course our journalists aren’t corrupt. Our journalists are hardworking people who strive for impartiality and I will stand by their journalism,’ she said as she turned up for work yesterday.
‘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.’
Downing Street also appeared to rally around the BBC, insisting it was not corrupt or institutionally biased.
In the blistering legal letter, Mr Trump’s lawyers accused the BBC of a ‘reckless disregard for the truth’ and said the doctored clip was ‘published to deliberately denigrate President Trump’.
It said the broadcast ‘maliciously’ altered what Mr Trump said by ‘editing together footage from the start of the speech with a separate quote’ uttered an hour later.
It also accused the BBC of deliberately editing out Mr Trump saying that he expected people to be ‘marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard’.
‘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,’ the letter says.
It said ‘tens of millions of people worldwide’ had viewed the ‘fabricated statement’ aired on the BBC’s various platforms.
‘Consequently, the BBC has caused President Trump to suffer overwhelming financial and reputational harm.’
Listing Mr Trump’s demands, the letter continues that the BBC must immediately issue a full 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’.
Its third and final demand is that the BBC must ‘appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused’.
A memo by former editorial advisor Michael Prescott leaked last week raised concerns over the doctoring of Mr Trump’s speech, and the BBC’s coverage of trans issues and Gaza.
The splicing of several clips together made it appear that Mr Trump had told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them to ‘fight like hell’.
Mr Shah said there have been more than 500 complaints since the leaked memo was published, adding: ‘We accept that the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action.’
However, the chairman attacked the author of the critical dossier, accusing Mr Prescott of giving a ‘personal account’ that gave only a ‘partial’ view of events.
