BBC claims Donald Trump has no case as 'doctored' Panorama footage did not air in US

The clip spliced portions of the speech which critics say made it appear as if President Trump had encouraged the violence.

Although the BBC has apologised and retracted the episode, Trump has threatened to sue the broadcaster for up to $5 billion.

Now, the BBC has told the President’s lawyers it would fight his lawsuit, claiming nobody in the US watched the programme and that it did not lead to damage to his reputation as he went on to win the 2024 election.

Their argument is understood to revolve around the fact t hat Trump: A Second Chance? did not air in the US due to the BBC not having the rights to show it.

Audiences in the US were also prevented from watching via BBC iPlayer because it was “geo-blocked” by the broadcaster, as reported in The Times.

In the clip, two moments from the President's speech were combined, making it appear he was telling his supporters he was going to the Capitol building with them to "fight like hell".

In reality, the President said he was going to walk with his supporters "to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard".

A BBC spokesperson said: “We have had no further contact from President Trump’s lawyers at this point. Our position remains the same.”

Read More: More chaos at BBC as Newsnight also accused of 'doctoring' Trump January 6 speech footage

Read More: Trump believes he has 'obligation' to sue BBC for up to $5bn over Capitol Riot speech

Speaking to GB News on Saturday, Trump said he had an "obligation" to sue the BBC, adding: "If you don't do it, you don't stop it from happening again with other people."

The US President called the edit "egregious" and "worse than the Kamala thing" - a reference to his earlier dispute with US news outlet CBS over an interview on the 60 Minutes programme with his 2024 election opponent, Kamala Harris.

The scandal in part led to the resignation of BBC Director-General Tim Davie and News CEO Deborah Mary Turness on Sunday.

In a statement released on Thursday evening, the BBC said: “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.

“The BBC would like to apologise to President Trump for that error of judgement.

“This programme was not scheduled to be re-broadcast and will not be broadcast again in this form on any BBC platforms.”