Trump tries to scrub away his 'blackest mark', the Capitol riot

The president's threat to sue the BBC is part of an attempt to rewrite his role in the 2021 siege. Hugh Tomlinson reports from Washington

- Hugh Tomlinson

Since his return to power, Donald Trump has launched a barrage of lawsuits against US media companies and tech firms, securing tens of millions of dollars in settlements.

With his threatened $5bn defamation suit against the BBC over its editing of his speech on 6 January 2021, broadcast on Panorama last year, the president has now gone global in his campaign against the press.

But the latest suit serves another purpose: since returning from the political wilderness, Trump has been obsessed with trying to rewrite the history of the fatal riot at the Capitol and the stain it left on his reputation.

On the president's orders, a new Republican-led committee has launched a second House investigation into January 6, revisiting the findings of the original panel that recommended criminal charges against Trump in 2022. Echoing the president, House Republicans have argued that the previous Democratic-led investigation was biased. House Speaker Mike Johnson has said the new panel will “uncover the full truth that is owed to the American people”.

“I think the original committee did some of the same type of editing that the BBC did, where they tried to enhance certain things and downplay or disregard others,” Virginia congressman Morgan Griffith, one of the Republicans on the new panel, told The Observer.

“You start off with a stacked deck, a jury that has been tainted right from the get-go,” he added. “I believe they set out to tell a narrative... that it was all President Trump's fault.”