US President Donald Trump has said he has ‘an obligation’ to sue the BBC, confirming he will do so for $1billion (£760million) over Panorama’s use of a doctored speech.
This comes days after Trump legal team sent to BBC Chairman Samir Shah at Television Centre saying: ‘President Trump will be left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights, all of which are expressly reserved and are not waived, including by filing legal action for no less than $1,000,000,000 (One Billion Dollars) in damages.
‘Due to their salacious nature, the fabricated statements that were aired by the BBC have been widely disseminated throughout various digital mediums, which have reached tens of millions of people worldwide. Consequently, the BBC has caused President Trump to suffer overwhelming financial and reputational harm.’
The letter from his lawyer, Alejandro Brito, added: ‘The BBC is on notice.’
A BBC spokesman said: ‘We will review the letter and respond directly in due course.’
The US president was asked about the potential lawsuit by Fox News’ Laura Ingraham in an interview that ran Tuesday and was filmed just hours after director-general Tim Davie quit the BBC on Sunday.
Mr Trump said: ‘I guess I have to, why not? They defrauded the public and they’ve admitted it, this is within one of our, supposedly, great allies. That’s a pretty sad event.’
He also claimed that the public broadcaster changed his ‘beautiful, calming’ speech on January 6 to ‘something radical’.
‘What they did was rather incredible, they showed me the results of what they did, how they butchered it up. But it was very dishonest and the head man quit,’ he added, referring to Mr Davie.
Ingraham then showed the doctored speech to her audience, before asking Mr Trump again to confirm he would sue the BBC.
‘I think I have an obligation to do it, because you can’t allow people to do it,’ he said, citing his success in suing CBS News’ 60 Minutes, leading to complete changes at the top of the Tiffany Network.
Mr Trump said in July that Paramount/CBS/60 Minutes paid $16million in the settlement and anticipated an additional $20million from the new owners of CBS in advertising, PSAs or similar programming.
Mr Trump previously set a deadline of 5pm EST (10pm in the UK) this Friday to ‘comply’ with his demands.
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