BBC ‘determined to fight’ any Trump case, chair tells staff after shakeup

The BBC is “determined to fight” any legal action filed by US President Donald Trump, the chair of the British broadcaster tells staff, saying there was no basis for a defamation case over its editing of a speech he gave ahead of the riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Trump said on Friday he would likely sue the BBC this week for as much as $5 billion after the broadcaster spliced together separate excepts of the speech, creating the impression that he was inciting the riot.

The BBC’s boss and its head of news quit last week amid mounting pressure after an internal report by a former standards adviser was leaked to the Daily Telegraph newspaper. The report cited failings in the network’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, trans issues, and the Trump speech.

The BBC’s chair Samir Shah sent a personal letter to Trump to apologize for the edit, the BBC said on Thursday, but the broadcaster said it strongly disagreed there was a basis for a defamation claim.

Trump told reporters on Friday he would sue for anywhere between $1 billion and $5 billion. “I think I have to do that, I mean they’ve even admitted that they cheated,” he said.

Shah tells BBC staff in an email today that there is a lot of speculation about the possibility of legal action, including potential costs or settlements.

“In all this we are, of course, acutely aware of the privilege of our funding and the need to protect our license fee payers, the British public,” he writes in the email. “I want to be very clear with you – our position has not changed. There is no basis for a defamation case and we are determined to fight this.”