President Donald Trump filed suit Monday against the British Broadcasting Company, seeking more than $5 billion from the venerable news outlet over what he contends was deliberately misleading editing of a speech he gave on Jan. 6, 2021, as the Capitol riot was getting underway.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Miami, complains that the BBC “maliciously” strung together two comments Trump made more than 54 minutes apart in order to convey the impression that he’d urged his supporters to engage in violence as electoral votes were set to be tabulated by Congress.
Well this is going to be one of the battles in the case. The Panorama episode in question was never aired in the US, but the Trump team argue that VPN use means some Floridians may have accessed it. The BBC’s team will seek to argue that such use isn’t significant enough to cause reputational damage to Trump in Florida.
This is basically a shake-down. So far, American media has rolled over and written it off as the cost of doing business. He may think that would be the case here.
It would be amazing if they counter sue for 15 billion.