TRUMP TELLS BBC, APOLOGISE BY FRIDAY OR PAY ME $1BN – A “reckless disregard for the truth
Donald Trump threatened to sue the BBC for $1bn (£760m), accusing it of a “reckless disregard for the truth”.
The US president raised the pressure on the BBC, just as it was reeling from the resignation of director-general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness over the selective editing of Mr Trump’s speech on the day of the Capitol Hill riot.
A senior official in the Trump administration suggested it “may consider” removing the BBC’s White House passes as a result of the dispute.
The Telegraph first disclosed on November 3rd that Panorama spliced together two separate parts of the speech in a way that wrongly suggested Mr Trump had urged his supporters to behave violently, when in fact he had said the opposite. This occurred at the height of a closely contested Presidential Election.
These revelations were contained in a leaked internal memo that also identified anti-Israel and pro-trans bias inside the BBC.
Lawyers acting for Mr Trump sent a legal letter to the BBC on Sunday demanding compensation, an apology and a retraction of “false” and “inflammatory statements” made about him in the Panorama documentary.
Mr Trump’s lawyers said a “failure to comply will leave President Trump with no choice but to pursue” the broadcaster for damages for the “overwhelming financial and reputational harm”. The US president gave the BBC a deadline of Friday to comply, or face a legal claim for $1bn in the Florida courts.
