Trump £1bn legal threat to sue BBC

UNITED States President Donald Trump has threatened a billion-dollar legal action against the BBC over the editing of a Panorama documentary.

- LAURA HARDING

BBC chairman Samir Shah has apologised for an "error of judgement" over the editing of a speech by Mr Trump before the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The apology follows the resignation of two of the corporation's most senior figures on Sunday chief executive of BBC News Deborah Turness and director-general Tim Davie who announced their departure from the BBC after concerns were raised by Michael Prescott, a former external advisor to the BBC's editorial guidelines and standards committee (EGSC), that the speech had been selectively edited.

Mr Prescott's leaked memo raised concerns about the way clips of Mr Trump's speech were spliced together to make it appear he had told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them to "fight like hell".

The letter, from Trump counsel Alejandro Brito, demands that "false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements" made about Mr Trump must be retracted immediately, Fox News reported.