Jonathan Kearsley: US correspondent on Donald Trump threating legal action against the BBC

The BBC is under extra scrutiny after this latest scandal - and US President Donald Trump is threatening legal action.

A leaked BBC memo suggests the Panorama programme edited Trump’s speech to imply he encouraged the Capitol Hill riots of January 2021.

The US President is demanding a full retraction, and is threatening to sue for nearly $1.8 billion New Zealand dollars in damages.

US correspondent Jonathan Kearsley says it's unclear where Trump will take this legal action.

"If he does it in the United Kingdom, well, they've got different defamation laws to what they do here in the United States - in the United States, you would have to go to a specific state."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
So Donald Trump is threatening to sue the BBC for
a billion US dollars for twisting his words. His lawyer
has written a letter accusing the corporation of damaging and
defamatory statements. Jonathan Kurzley is our US correspondent with US.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hey, Jonathan, Heather, are always good to stalk you in
a listeners.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
What does Donald Trump want from them? Does he want
an apology? Does he want to withdrawal of the Panorama program?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Or both? Like all of his legal threats and lawsuit
actions against news organizations, he wants money and he wants victory.
What he has done here is put forward the same
sort of figure that he's put forward in other legal
threats against other media organizations here in the United States,
by demanding one billion dollars for what he is calling

(00:42):
or what his lawyers are calling, malicious and disparaging edits
over the speech he delivered on the day of the
insurrection at the Capitol. It was featured in a Panorama documentary.
The words were spliced from different sections of the program
to make it look like he had said something slightly
different to what he had actually said. We've obviously seen
the resignations of the director General of the BBC and

(01:03):
of the see of the News Division. But that's not
enough for the American President, who, as I said, is
now taking the action that he's taken against other news
organizations when he's not happy with what they publish or
broadcast about him, demanding that a billion dollars be paid
to him. Whether he takes this legal action and exactly
where he takes this legal action though, that remains to
be seen, because if he does it in the United Kingdom, well,

(01:25):
they've got different defamation laws to what they do here
in the United States. In the United States, he would
have to go to a specific state. He would also
have to prove that that program Panorama had been viewed
in that specific state. So he clearly has some options
that he needs to work through. But the option he
has put down is as he has done before. It

(01:48):
is apologized, retract and pay up now?

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Am I right in thinking that in most of these
cases this is settled outside of court before it even
reaches court, in which case this is probably going to
end the same way.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Well, when it comes to the media claims and the
media litigation he's made, not many of them have actually progressed.
I mean, the one that is moving forward at the
moment is one against the Wall Street Journal over some
material that was published in relation to the Epstein files
and Donald Trump's links to those and apparent birthday card
that was sent by President Trump to Jeffrey Epstein that

(02:24):
Donald Trump denies. He ever wrote in other civil matters
where he has taken action against media companies here I'm
thinking of CBS in sixty minutes in particular, and paramount
it has been settled outside court. He has also taken
action against ABS America and received some fifteen million US
dollars towards his Presidential Library fund. If you like, so,

(02:47):
this is exactly what it is. It is a threat.
It is not a design to get a billion dollars,
but this is the figure he has put down before.
It is an intimidation tactic to say, if you want
to take this all the way, then this is what
it's going to cost you. Otherwise, talk to me outside,
talk to my lawyers outside, and let's find the middle
ground that everybody's happy with now. Employers of other media

(03:09):
organizations haven't been happy with the playoffs that have been
given because it admits guilt in a sort of way.
So what happens now with the BBC in turmoil over
the loss of its significant leadership and now facing a
billion dollars threat from the American President is how much
now do they cow tower to America's commander in chief.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Jonathan's always good to talk to you, mate, Thank you
very much. Jonathan Kursley are US correspondent. For more from
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