President Trump will use the BBC‘s own emails to try to win his £7billion lawsuit against the broadcaster, court documents have revealed.
Internal BBC emails will form part of Trump’s defamation case against the broadcaster over a Panorama episode.
The defamation case hinges on a 12-second edit of Trump’s January 6, 2021 address, spliced together for a Panorama film broadcast weeks out from the 2024 US presidential election.
Viewers heard him say: ‘We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.’ The fight lines came more than 50 minutes later, which Trump says made it look like he incited the mob.
Trump’s legal team will use an apology from Samir Shah, the BBC chairman, to try to prove the documentary was produced maliciously.
Lawyers will also use emails to show BBC documentary producers sharing links to watch the programme with those in the US – to prove Americans could also watch it.
The President will need to prove that the documentary was maliciously published for the segment to be considered defamatory under US libel law.
Under the law, libel has been committed when information is published ‘with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not’.
President Donald Trump speaks at the ‘Stop The Steal’ Rally on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC
Internal BBC emails will form part of Trump’s defamation case against the broadcaster over a Panorama episode
Trump’s legal team will use an apology from Samir Shah, the BBC chairman, to try to prove the documentary was produced maliciously
Lawyers will also have to prove that the programme was watched in the US – as it was only available in Britain.
Trump first filed the lawsuit last December after it was discovered that the BBC had spliced two sections of the President’s speech.
The following uproar led to Tim Davie, then director-general of the BBC, and Deborah Turness, the BBC News chief executive, resigning.
Trump refused to accept an apology from Mr Shah and is now pursuing the broadcaster through the US courts.
Mr Shah wrote to Trump last year that the documentary had ‘unintentionally created the impression of a single, continuous section of your speech’ and had given ‘the mistaken impression that you had made a direct call for violent action. That was an editorial error and it should not have happened. I have stated clearly and publicly that the BBC apologises for that error of judgment.’
Lawyers representing the US President are using this to argue that the corporation defamed their client with ‘actual malice’, according to The Times.
The BBC argues that the apology made clear that the error made in editing was unintentional.
Trump’s attorney, Alejandro Brito, said in a hearing that the BBC ‘vehemently deny that the splicing was done with actual malice or with intent. The problem with that argument, your honour, is that it is entirely belied by the words of the chairman of the BBC.’
Pro-Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol following a rally with President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021
President Donald Trump arrives at the “Stop The Steal” Rally on January 6 2021 in Washington DC
Supporters of Donald Trump fight with law enforcement outside the US Capitol in 2021
The BBC denies defamation and argued that the case should be thrown out because the documentary was broadcast for a UK audience, not the US.
But the President’s lawyers allege that internal BBC emails show that staff shared the documentary to people outside of the UK.
Producers shared links to the documentary with a select group of US residents who were involved in the documentary.
One email sent by a representative of October Films, with a BBC staff member, included instructions on how to use a virtual private network (VPN) to access BBC iPlayer from outside Britain.
A VPN tricks websites into believing you are browsing from another country.
The BBC said it had strict rules to prevent iPlayer being watched outside the UK therefore any viewing in the US would be unauthorised.
The emails also show that BBC editors were considering titling the documentary Wanted: President Trump? with a mock-up of a wanted poster in the emails.
The Panorama programme was eventually titled Trump: A second chance?
The BBC says records will show the President’s wealth has climbed by more than $1billion in the past year, contradicting his claim that the documentary cost him money.
A spokesman for the BBC said: ‘We have said throughout we will robustly defend the case against us. The documentary was never aired anywhere in the US, including the state of Florida. We are continuing to challenge the jurisdiction of the Florida court to hear this claim, and we have filed a Motion to Dismiss the President’s recently amended claim.’
