Donald Trump‘s lawyers have accused the BBC of a “brazen” attempt to interfere in the 2024 U.S. election on the basis that fewer than 300 Americans may have seen a documentary that misleadingly edited his January 6 speech.
Trump is suing the BBC in Florida for $10 billion, and his amended complaint against the British broadcaster incorporates newly discovered evidence about the viewing figures for the Panorama film, Trump: A Second Chance?, which premiered days before the presidential election.
Trump’s new complaint claims that the documentary — which was produced by October Films and spliced together two parts of Trump’s Capitol riots speech — was streamed on iPlayer by “hundreds of individuals” in the U.S., despite it being geoblocked in America.
But the evidence was not this emphatic.
The lawsuit attributes the new information to a deposition of Richard Cooper, the BBC’s director of digital distribution. Cooper revealed that the Panorama film was successfully viewed 570,000 times on iPlayer, but only 0.05%, or 285, of these streams originated from IP addresses that could have been based in America. Some 34 streams appear to have originated from IP addresses that may have been based in Florida, where the case is being heard.
During his interview under oath, Cooper was repeatedly clear with Trump’s lawyers that although the BBC’s data “might identify the IP address as being from the United States, that doesn’t necessarily mean to say it originated from the United States.” He added that the Florida IP streams were linked to an internet service provider associated with a cruise ship company.
Cooper also qualified that the BBC’s viewing figures were for the “entire period that the documentary was
available.” This is important because it is not clear if the 285 potential U.S. streams came in the days leading up to the election, when Trump claims that election meddling took place. The Panorama film was on iPlayer for around a year before being pulled by the BBC.
The BBC is defending the lawsuit, but has admitted failings over the Panorama film. The broadcaster has apologized for the Trump edit, with chair Samir Shah describing it as an “error of judgment.” He added: “We accept the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action.”
