The US President is suing the broadcaster for £7.5 billion (€10bn), claiming a Panorama documentary unfairly edited one of his speeches to suggest he incited the violence at the US Capitol following the 2020 presidential election.
The legal battle centers on a program broadcast in 2024, which featured a clip of Trump telling supporters to ‘fight like hell’ before the riots.
Trump argues the documentary omitted an earlier part of the speech in which he said supporters would march to the Capitol to ‘cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women’, creating what he says was a false impression that he directly encouraged the violence.
The BBC denies the claim and is seeking to defend its reporting.
According to court filings, the broadcaster is attempting to obtain text messages between Trump and his advisers from the hours surrounding the Capitol attack, arguing the communications could help determine whether the documentary’s portrayal was substantially true.
The BBC has also requested access to evidence gathered during a previous government investigation into the events of January 6.In court documents, the broadcaster argued that Trump cannot succeed in his defamation claim if he cannot prove the implication that he encouraged the violence was false.
Trump’s legal team has resisted handing over some documents, citing executive privilege.
Meanwhile, a federal judge in Florida has ruled that Trump must provide detailed information about his companies’ finances after the BBC sought the records as part of the case.
The decision, first reported by Politico, is expected to be appealed by Trump’s lawyers.
If upheld, the ruling could allow the BBC to seek financial information relating to hundreds of companies linked to the Trump family business interests.
* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.
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