Lawyers acting on behalf of U.S. President Donald Trump have given the UK state broadcaster the BBC until Friday night to take action over the “false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory” fabricated speech they broadcast, or else face legal action for $1 billion (£750 million) in compensation.
Controversy over a leaked internal BBC document, which revealed that top executives at the state broadcaster had been aware of ethical issues surrounding their reporting on several key areas, including U.S. President Donald Trump, but appeared not to have acted meaningfully on them, continues with the threat of legal action now having been issued. A legal letter to the BBC from lawyers acting on behalf of President Trump demands a “full and fair retraction”, an immediate apology, and compensation by Friday, or the corporation will face a lawsuit.
Calling the broadcast of a doctored speech by President Trump in a Panorama documentary which was found by an internal BBC memo to have “materially misled” viewers on what the President actually said on January 6th “false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory”, the letter said it should be immediately retracted.
The letter from Trump’s legal team, reproduced by The Daily Telegraph, stated that because the fabricated speech was so salacious, it was widely seen, and has caused “President Trump to suffer overwhelming financial and reputational harm”, compensation is owed. Further, it noted “the BBC’s reckless disregard for the truth underscores the actual malice behind the decision to publish”.
The letter gives the BBC until 5 pm EST (2200 GMT) to comply or else Trump will file for a legal action “for no less than $1,000,000,000 (One Billion Dollars) in damages.”
“The BBC is on notice,” they said.
This letter follows the resignation of the Director General Tim Davie and CEO of News Deborah Turness from the BBC overnight. British observers have stated the corporation is at a crisis point over the scandal of a doctored speech which spliced together differing remarks from President Trump to give the impression he had ordered his supporters to march on the U.S. Capitol and “fight”.