Courting trouble? Possible outcomes of libel threat

Donald Trump has grabbed the headlines after threatening to sue the BBC for $1bn (£760m) for what the corporation has accepted was a misleading edit of his speech on 6 January 2021 during the Capitol Hill insurrection.

- Haroon Siddique

Where will Trump sue?

As the Panorama episode was first broadcast on 28 October last year, Trump has missed the boat for filing a defamation claim in London, where it must be brought within a year.

However, in Florida the statute of limitations is two years, so he is not timed out, and in the US BBC content is available through the BBC website and the BBC Select streaming service.

A letter from Trump's lawyer to the BBC notified them of his intention to bring proceedings in Florida if there is “not a full and fair retraction of the documentary”, an apology and appropriate compensation for the harm caused.

Can he really sue for $1bn?

In the UK the biggest defamation award made by a court is believed to be £1.5m, but in the US the highest award was the $1.4bn that the Infowars founder and conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones, was ordered to pay to the families of victims from the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, which he claimed was a hoax.