President Trump on Monday filed suit against the BBC, calling the way it edited a clip of his Jan. 6, 2021, speech to supporters before the U.S. Capitol attack was “false, deceptive, and defamatory.”
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Southern Florida, says that the outlet used its “Trump: A Second Chance?” documentary, released on Oct. 28, 2024, “maliciously, falsely, and defamatorily make it appear that President Trump explicitly called for violent action and rioting” on Jan. 6.
The clip the president took issue with quotes him as saying, “We’re going down to the Capitol, and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
In reality, Trump said, “We’re going to walk down, and I’ll be there with you, we’re going to walk down, we’re going to walk down. Anyone you want, but I think right here, we’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re going to be cheering so much for some of them. Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness.”
He continued at the time, “You have to show strength, and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated.”
The president later added, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
Roughly an hour later, Trump said the second part of the edited clip: “And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
Last month, the BBC issued an apology to the White House after the president and his personal attorneys threatened to sue the British broadcaster over the edited clip. A spokesperson for the company also said at the time that “we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim.”
The lawsuit filed Monday asks the court to award Trump $5 billion in damages, calling the BBC’s actions “a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence” the 2024 presidential election, in which Trump defeated former Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Hill has reached out to the BBC for comment.