Trump, BBC agree on mediator for $10 billion lawsuit over Jan 6 documentary editing controversy

Trump and The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) have agreed on a mediator on Tuesday to help resolve the president’s massive $10 billion defamation lawsuit. Media Trump, BBC agree on mediator for $10 billion lawsuit over Jan 6 documentary editing controversy BBC has apologized for misleading edit but denies defamation claim By Brian Flood Fox News Published March 4, 2026 12:30pm EST Facebook Twitter Threads Flipboard Comments Print Email Add Fox News on Google close Video Trump sues BBC for $10 billion over edited clips of his January 6 speech Fox News Madeleine Rivera provides details on President Donald Trumps accusation that the BBC attempted to interfere in the 2024 election with an edited version of his Jan. 6 speech, omitting his comment on peacefully protesting. NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! President Donald Trump and The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) agreed on a mediator on Tuesday to help resolve the president’s $10 billion lawsuit. The BBC has come under intense scrutiny over a 2024 Panorama documentary about Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, speech delivered before the riot at the U.S. Capitol. Critics called the documentary misleading because it omitted Trump's call for supporters to protest peacefully. Trump sued the BBC in December for both defamation and for a violation of Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act for $5 billion apiece, seeking $10 billion total. While ABC and CBS have both settled lawsuits with Trump in the past year, the BBC has vowed to fight the case. The two sides agreed on John W. Thornton, Esq., to serve as a pretrial mediator, who will seek a resolution. President Donald Trump and The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) agreed on a mediator on Tuesday to help resolve the president’s $10 billion lawsuit. (Patrick van Katwijk/Getty Images) "The BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally and deceitfully editing its documentary in order to try and interfere in the Presidential election. President Trump will continue to hold accountable those who traffic in lies, deception, and fake news," a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team told Fox News Digital. The BBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump’s suit, filed in the Southern District of Florida Federal Court, was filed in a personal capacity and named the BBC and BBC Studios Productions as defendants. The parties have proposed a mediation session the week of Oct. 26. Mediation, a standard case management step required by the court, is contingent on the outcome of a jurisdictional challenge the BBC is expected to submit later this month. "As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case. We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings," a BBC spokesperson told Fox News Digital.LEGAL ANALYST PREDICTS TRUMP COULD WIN 'CONSIDERABLE' DAMAGES FROM BBC DOCUMENTARY LAWSUIT President Donald Trump has tangled in the courts with several media organizations. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images) The BBC previously issued an apology for the erroneous edit and said it had pulled the program from its platforms, but a spokesperson for the broadcaster added, "While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim." The controversy began with a bombshell report from The Telegraph that featured excerpts from a whistleblower dossier compiled by Michael Prescott, a communications advisor hired by the BBC to review its editorial standards.The whistleblower revealed that the BBC "Panorama" documentary released in 2024 had a misleading edit of comments Trump made at the rally that preceded the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.The documentary omitted Trump urging his supporters to protest "peacefully" and instead spliced two separate comments made nearly an hour apart, making it appear he was calling for violence. "We're going to walk down to the Capitol. And I'll be there with you. And we fight — we fight like hell," the documentary showed Trump saying, with no indication the statements came far apart.EX-BBC DIRECTOR GENERAL TELLS NETWORK THEY SHOULDN'T AGREE TO PAY TRUMP ANY MONEY VideoIn reality, Trump said, "We're going to walk down to the Capitol. And we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong." It was 54 minutes later that Trump called on his supporters to "fight like hell" for election integrity. The New York Times referred to the ordeal as "one of the worst crises in its 103-year history" of the BBC. The blunder led to the resignations of BBC News CEO Deborah Turness and BBC director-general Tim Davie. Turness insisted in an interview last week that the BBC does not have any institutional bias against Trump. Trump’s legal team suggested the defendants "timed the publication of the Panorama Documentary to be close in time to the 2024 Presidential Election" and the value of the president’s "personal brand alone is reasonably esti