Trump Sues BBC for $10 Billion in Defamation Lawsuit After Broadcaster Refused to Pay Him $1 Billion.Ng2

President Donald Trump is suing the BBC for up to $10 billion in damages after accusing them of deceptively editing his Jan. 6, 2021, speech in a documentary that aired days before the 2024 presidential election.

While speaking at the White House on Monday, Dec. 15, Trump, 79, confirmed he’d be filing the lawsuit against the British public broadcaster. The president told reporters, “In a little while you’ll be seeing I’m suing the BBC,” accusing the company of “putting words in my mouth.”

Trump then filed the suit against the BBC later that day in a federal court in Miami, asking for $5 billion in damages for defamation, as well as the same amount for a claim of violating trade practices, according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE.

As previously reported by PEOPLE, the BBC covered the president’s Jan. 6, 2021, speech in its current affairs series Panorama, in the episode “Trump: A Second Chance?” 

The episode included various clips spliced together non-sequentially, creating the impression that Trump was telling his supporters to incite violence, PEOPLE previously reported, citing . The episode specifically included a clip of Trump telling supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” However, clips of the president urging supporters to demonstrate peacefully were absent from the program. The crowd later 

In the 33-page complaint filed on Monday, obtained by PEOPLE, Trump’s attorneys asked the court for a jury trial, claiming the BBC documentary was “a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence the Election’s outcome to President Trump’s detriment.”

The BBC, BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. and BBC Studios Productions Ltd. are all listed as defendants in the suit.

A BBC spokesperson said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE when asked about the lawsuit, “As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case. We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”

A spokesman for Trump’s legal team added in a statement obtained by PEOPLE, “The formerly respected and now disgraced BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech in a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 Presidential Election.” 

“The BBC has a long pattern of deceiving its audience in coverage of President Trump, all in service of its own leftist political agenda. President Trump’s powerhouse lawsuit is holding the BBC accountable for its defamation and reckless election interference just as he has held other fake news mainstream media responsible for their wrongdoing,” they added.

The suit comes after the  apologized to Trump for the Panorama episode on Nov. 13, saying in a statement, “We accept that our edit unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points in the speech, and that this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action.”

“BBC chair Samir Shah has separately sent a personal letter to the White House making clear to President Trump that he and the corporation are sorry for the edit of the president’s speech on 6 January 2021, which featured in the programme,” the broadcaster continued.

They added, “While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim.” 

The broadcaster refused to pay compensation after lawyers for Trump threatened to sue them for $1 billion in damages.

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BBC News Director-General Tim Davie and CEO Deborah Turness resigned amid the controversy. In a message to staff, Davie acknowledged the “mistake” and also expressed support for the BBC defending itself, reported at the time of the apology.

The BBC previously acknowledged that in Trump’s speech, he said, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women,” adding more than 50 minutes later, “And we fight. We fight like hell.”

They admitted that in the Panorama documentary, the clip showed him as saying, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”