WASHINGTON —President Donald trump He announced again that he felt under the “obligation” to sue – as he had already threatened – the British network BBC for “twisting” his words before the assault on the Capitol in 2021 in order to prevent something similar from happening to other people and to uncover how many more times it has happened.
“I have an obligation to do it. I’m not looking to get into legal trouble. But I think I have an obligation to do it. This was so atrocious. If you don’t do it, you don’t prevent it from happening again to other people,” he said during an interview for the British network GB News.
The tycoon denounced “more than false”; What the BBC workers did when editing his speech was something “corrupt” and he announced that his team of lawyers is preparing and “will sue.”
“We’re going to sue them for between $1 billion and $5 billion, probably sometime next week. I think I have to do it. They even admitted that they cheated,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
“Defamation”
Trump’s lawyers sent a letter to the BBC on Monday accusing the network of defaming the president for editing a video of a speech before the Capitol riot in January 2021, and gave them until Friday to apologize and pay compensation.
“People in the United Kingdom are very angry about what happened, as you can imagine, because it shows that the BBC is fake news,” Trump said Friday night.
“We’ll see what happens. I don’t imagine they’ll do very well in that trial,” he warned before reiterating that he feels “obliged to file a lawsuit.” demand important against the BBC because what they did is incredible.
Along the same lines, the tenant of the White House asserted that the manipulation seen in this case is “worse” than that of other known cases that have resulted in million-dollar fines and suggested that this may not be the first time that the BBC has edited his words “and those of others.”
“One of the advantages of litigation is that we will find out how many times they have done it to other people. Have they done it to their prime minister? Have they done it to Nigel (Farage, leader of the Reform UK party)?” he asked.
Damages
These statements come after this Wednesday he was considering suing the British corporation for “distorting” his speech shortly before the assault perpetrated by his followers on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, an incident with which they sought to avoid the certification of the electoral results that gave victory to Joe Biden, results that Trump denounces were manipulated in favor of the Democrat.
This is the first time that Trump has spoken publicly about the matter since his legal team notified the BBC of the existence of a lawsuit for damages amounting to nearly $1 billion (863 million euros) and with which the New Yorker is seeking an apology and compensation.
The president of the BBC, Samir Shah, had previously apologized for this content, considering that it was produced, according to him, by an “error.” However, Trump’s lawyers gave until this Friday to obtain “appropriate compensation” for the “damages caused” by that report.
Shah’s apology was related to the fact that the report pointed to “direct culpability” on Trump’s part in “urging” alleged “violent action” in statements made just before the assault, something that did not happen, which the BBC edited to make its audience believe that Trump ordered the assault.
The case put the group in the eye of the hurricane and led to the resignations of its general director and the head of its BBC News information network.
The network announced on Thursday that the chairman of the BBC Board of Directors, Samir Shah, “sent a personal letter to the White House to clearly tell President Trump that he and the company regret” the staging of that speech.
However, he added: “While the BBC sincerely regrets the way in which these images were staged, we firmly reject that there is any legal basis for a defamation claim.”
