President Donald Trump sued the BBC on Monday for defamation over edited clips of a speech that made it appear he directed supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol, opening an international front in his fight against media coverage he deems untrue or unfair.
Trump asked for at least $5 billion in damages, according to the lawsuit.
Trump's lawsuit claims the documentary was created as part of what it describes as a "brazen attempt" to interfere with and influence the outcome of the election to his detriment.
According to the suit, the documentary, titled Trump: A Second Chance, was edited in a way that made it appear as though Trump explicitly encouraged his supporters to attack the US Capitol during his January 6, 2021, speech outside the White House.
The filing states that the Panorama documentary falsely portrayed Trump as telling supporters: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol and I'll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore." The lawsuit maintains that Trump never delivered this sequence of remarks.
Instead, it says the phrase "And we fight" was spoken nearly 55 minutes after Trump said "I'll be there with you," but was edited to appear as a continuous statement.
BBC Chair Samir Shah has since apologized for what he called an "error of judgment" in the editing, while the broadcaster's director general and head of news have both stepped down.