Trump says will file lawsuit against BBC by Tuesday

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said he would be imminently filing a lawsuit against the BBC over the editing of his 2021 speech to supporters before their assault on the U.S. Capitol.

"We'll be filing that suit probably this afternoon or tomorrow morning," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, over a month after first threatening a billion-dollar defamation complaint against the British broadcaster.

"Literally, they put words in my mouth," the 79-year-old Republican said, accusing the BBC of using "AI or something" to fabricate his words without providing any evidence.

The British Broadcasting Corporation, whose audience extends well beyond the United Kingdom, faced turmoil following the accusations about "Panorama," its flagship current affairs program.

Ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the program aired clips from Trump's January 6, 2021, speech.

The video spliced together two sections of Trump's speech in a way that made it appear he explicitly urged supporters to attack the Capitol, where lawmakers were certifying Joe Biden's 2020 election win.

A firestorm erupted over the edited clip in early November, leading the BBC director-general and the organization's top news executive to resign.

The BBC has denied Trump's claims of legal defamation, and BBC chairman Samir Shah sent Trump a letter of apology.

But the American president has filed or threatened to file lawsuits against several media outlets in the United States, which have led to multi-million-dollar settlements.

AFP