Trump threatens to sue BBC over report

President Trump has threatened legal action against the BBC over the way a speech he made was edited in a documentary aired by Britain's national broadcaster.

- BY JILL LAWLESS

PRESIDENT Trump says a show aired by London-based BBC was defamatory.

(KIN CHEUNG Associated Press)

BBC Chairman Samir Shah on Monday apologized for the “error of judgment,” which triggered the resignations of the BBC's top executive and its head of news.

Director-General Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness quit Sunday over accusations of bias and misleading editing of a speech Trump delivered on Jan. 6, 2021, before a crowd of his supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington.

The hourlong documentary — titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” — was broadcast as part of the BBC’s “Panorama” series days before the 2024 U.S. presidential election. It spliced together three quotes from two sections of the 2021 speech, delivered almost an hour apart, into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.

Shah said the broadcaster accepted “that the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action.”

A letter from Trump attorney Alejandro Brito demands the BBC “retract the false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements,” apologize and “appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused,” or face legal action for $1 billion in damages.

The BBC said it would review the letter “and respond directly in due course.”