BBC Apologizes To Trump, Rejects His $1bln Legal Threat

By Staff, Agencies

The BBC has issued an apology to US President Donald Trump over the edited Panorama documentary that prompted the resignations of Director General Tim Davie and BBC News chief Deborah Turness.

However, the corporation has rejected Trump’s demand for financial compensation, despite his legal team threatening a $1 billion [£760m] lawsuit unless the broadcaster retracted the program, apologized, and agreed to a settlement.

While the BBC has agreed not to rebroadcast the Panorama episode, it maintains that Trump has no grounds for a defamation claim.

“Lawyers for the BBC have written to President Trump’s legal team in response to a letter received on Sunday,” a BBC spokesperson said.

“BBC chair Samir Shah has separately sent a personal letter to the White House making clear to President Trump that he and the corporation are sorry for the edit of the president’s speech on 6 January 2021, which featured in the program,” he stressed.

The spokesperson added, “The BBC has no plans to rebroadcast the documentary Trump: A Second Chance? on any BBC platforms.

While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, "we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim.” The controversy stems from the Panorama edit that spliced together two distant sections of Trump’s 6 January speech, broadcast a week before the US election, giving the impression that he told supporters, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you, and we fight. We fight like hell.”

The two statements were originally delivered nearly an hour apart. The backlash intensified after a memo by Michael Prescott, a former independent advisor to the BBC’s editorial guidelines and standards committee, flagged concerns about the Panorama cut and raised broader claims of systemic bias, a charge the BBC firmly denies.

Davie ultimately accepted responsibility for the errors highlighted in the Prescott memo. Though Trump has threatened to sue, legal experts have questioned his chances. A case filed in Florida, where he is expected to pursue action, would face liberal libel standards, and the Panorama episode was not broadcast there.

Any legal avenue in the UK is considered closed due to the passage of time, and Trump would need to prove tangible harm. The issue has widened after reports that BBC Newsnight aired a similar splice of Trump’s January 6 speech in a 2022 episode, merging his call for supporters to walk to the Capitol with a later remark urging them to “fight like hell.”

Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, had publicly criticized the edit, telling the program, “Your video actually spliced together the presentation… That line about ‘and we fight and fight like hell’ is actually later in the speech.”

A BBC spokesperson said the corporation is now reviewing the Newsnight incident. “The BBC holds itself to the highest editorial standards. This matter has been brought to our attention, and we are now looking into it.” The political fallout has continued in Westminster.

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said his party has written to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, urging him to press Trump to “drop his ludicrous $1bn lawsuit against the BBC.”

In a post on X, Davey accused Trump of wanting to “destroy the BBC” and criticized Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who has accused the BBC of leftwing bias, for “egging [Trump] on.” Reports have also circulated that Reform UK has withdrawn from a planned BBC documentary about the party due to the ongoing controversy.