President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on Dec. 15, seeking $10 billion in damages for alleged defamation and deceptive trade practices stemming from the editing of his Jan. 6, 2021, speech in a BBC “Panorama” documentary that aired in 2024.
The 33-page complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, accuses the BBC of “intentionally and maliciously” splicing together two separate clips of Trump’s speech — delivered more than 50 minutes apart — to falsely suggest he incited violence ahead of the Capitol riot.
According to the lawsuit, the documentary merged Trump’s early remarks about marching to the Capitol with a later phrase, “fight like hell,” creating what his attorneys say was a misleading impression that he directly urged supporters to engage in violence. The BBC also omitted Trump’s call for supporters to act “peacefully,” the complaint says.
The edited clip showed Trump telling rallygoers, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and I’ll be there with you, and we fight. We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
In reality, Trump said at 12:12 p.m., “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women,” according to footage shared by the Telegraph. Minutes later, Trump added, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
At 1:07 p.m., Trump said, “Something is wrong here. Something’s really wrong, can’t have happened, and we fight. We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight you’re not going to have a country anymore,” according to the footage. FOX News reported that Trump was calling on supporters to “fight like hell” for election integrity.
The documentary titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” aired in the United Kingdom on Oct. 28, 2024, shortly before the U.S. presidential election.
“I’m suing the BBC for putting words in my mouth, literally,” Trump told reporters Dec. 15. He later added, “They actually put terrible words in my mouth having to do with January 6th that I didn’t say.”
The lawsuit also alleges that the BBC used footage of members of the Proud Boys traveling toward the Capitol before Trump’s address and presented it in a way that implied they were motivated by his remarks. In reality, the Proud Boys began moving toward the Capitol around 11 a.m., according to footage shared by the Telegraph, while Trump did not begin speaking until shortly after noon and did not use the phrase “fight like hell” until after 1 p.m.
Trump’s legal team described the broadcast as part of a “longstanding pattern” of misleading coverage and a “brazen attempt to interfere in and influence” the election in court documents. They are seeking a jury trial.
As CatholicVote previously reported, Trump threatened in November to sue the network for $1 billion over the edited footage. In response to Trump’s threat, the BBC described the “Panorama” edit as an error of judgment, apologized to Trump, and stated it created a mistaken impression that he made a direct call for violent action, according to Reuters. The controversy contributed to the resignations last month of BBC Director-General Tim Davie and Chief Executive of BBC News Deborah Turness amid broader accusations of bias.
In response to the Dec. 15 lawsuit, a BBC spokesperson said it would defend the case and added, “We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings,” AP News reported.
The suit seeks $5 billion for defamation and an additional $5 billion under Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. The documentary was not broadcast on U.S. television but was accessible via platforms like BritBox, according to the complaint.
Trump has pursued multiple defamation actions against U.S. media outlets in recent years, securing multimillion-dollar settlements from ABC and CBS over separate claims of misleading reporting or editing.