BBC Apologizes To Donald Trump Following President’s $1 Billion Lawsuit Threat

Whether Trump will proceed with legal action against the BBC remains uncertain.

The BBC issued an apology to Donald Trump on Friday after the US President stated he feels compelled to pursue legal action against the network over its editing of his remarks.

Trump had called for a complete retraction, prompt apology, and financial compensation from the BBC following a Panorama documentary that allegedly made it seem he incited violence prior to the January 6 Capitol riot.

The network had been given a deadline of the following day to address the President’s $1 billion legal warning after facing backlash that the programme had deceived its audience.

In Friday’s statement, the BBC characterized the editing as an ‘error of judgment’ and confirmed the programme will ‘not be broadcast again in this form on any BBC platforms.’

Related: Trump Says Biden Tried To Divide America With His Name During Capital Riot Anniversary Speech

However, the statement also noted that ‘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 programme, Trump: A Second Chance?, has been removed from the BBC website, with a retraction posted on the page Thursday evening.

The retraction stated: ‘This programme was reviewed after criticism of how President Donald Trump’s 6th January 2021 speech was edited.

‘During that sequence, we showed excerpts taken from different parts of the speech.

‘However, 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.’

Speaking about his potential lawsuit earlier in the week, Mr Trump said: ‘I guess I have to (sue). Why not? They defrauded the public, and they’ve admitted it. This is within one of our great allies, supposedly our great ally.

‘That’s a pretty sad event. They actually changed my January 6 speech, which was a beautiful speech, which was a very calming speech, and they made it sound radical.’

Mentioning director-general Tim Davie’s resignation on Sunday amid the controversy, the President added: ‘They showed me the results of how they butchered it up. It was very dishonest and the head man quit and a lot of the other people quit.’

He further stated to Fox News on Tuesday: ‘I think I have an obligation to (sue) because you can’t allow people to do that.’

Mr Trump indicated he would be ‘left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights… including by filing legal action for no less than 1,000,000,000 dollars (£760million) in damages,’ should the BBC not take action.

When questioned about Mr Trump’s legal threats, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described the organization to reporters as a ‘Leftist propaganda machine’.

She further noted that it is ‘unfortunate’ the broadcaster receives funding from British taxpayers, while indicating that legal proceedings are anticipated to move forward.

BBC chairman Samir Shah issued an apology for an ‘error of judgment’ regarding the edit, which originally aired in October of the previous year, on Monday, following the resignations of Mr Davie and Deborah Turness, chief executive of news.