Trump to push ahead with BBC lawsuit: Three experts on why he might struggle to win
Donald Trump has confirmed he plans to sue the BBC for between $1bn and $5bn over the editing of his speech in a Panorama news programme.
The corporation said it was an “error of judgement” to splice two sections of his speech together, and the programme will “not be broadcast again in this form on any BBC platforms”.
“We have to do it, they’ve even admitted that they cheated,” the US president told reporters overnight on Saturday.
“Not that they couldn’t have not done that. They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth.”
However, the lawsuit will not be easy, according to three experts who have spoken to Sky News.
“Filing a lawsuit is easy,” said Mark Stevens, media law solicitor at Howard Kennedy, to Sky presenter Samantha Washington.
“Winning one is, in this case, like trying to lasso a tornado: technically possible, but you’re going to need more than a cowboy hat.”
So why would this case be so hard to win?
Where did the damage occur?
The Panorama episode was not aired in the US, which may make Mr Trump’s case harder.
“For a libel claim to succeed, harm must occur where the case is brought,” said Mr Stevens.
“It’s hard to argue [for] that reputational damage in a jurisdiction where the content wasn’t aired.”
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BBC crisis: How did it happen?
The president will also have to show that his reputation suffered actual harm.
“But his reputation was pretty damaged on this issue before,” said Mr Stevens.
“There have been judicial findings, congressional hearings, global media coverage around 6 January. Laying that responsibility for any further harm at the door of the BBC seems pretty tenuous.”
Was the mistake malicious?
In order to sue someone for libel in the US, you have to prove they did it on purpose – or with ‘malicious intent’.
That might be hard to prove, according to Alan Rusbridger, editor of Prospect magazine and former editor-in-chief of the Guardian.
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‘Trump suing BBC is just noise and bluster’
“I just don’t think that he can do that,” he said.
Since 1964, US public officials have had to prove that what was said against them was made with “knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard for the truth”.
“The reason for that, when the Supreme Court passed this in 1964, is the chilling effect on journalism,” said Mr Rusbridger.
“If a journalist makes a mistake, [and] this clearly was a mistake, if that ends up with their employers having to pay $1bn, $2bn, $3bn, that would be a dreadful chill on journalism.
“Unless Trump can prove that whoever this was who was editing this film did it with malice, the case is open and shut.”
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Is he suing for too much money?
Mr Trump says he’s going to sue for between $1bn and $5bn, figures former BBC legal correspondent Clive Coleman described as “very fanciful”.
“That, I think, is very fanciful because he will have to show that he has suffered billions of dollars worth of reputational damage.
“We know that this was back in 2020 when the speech was made. He went on to be successful in business and, of course, to be re-elected as US president.”
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‘Trump faces some really big hurdles’ in suing BBC
However, Mr Coleman did suggest the BBC should try to “bring this to an end as speedily as possible”.
“Litigation is always a commercial decision and it’s a reputational decision,” he said.
“The legal processes towards a court case are long and arduous and this is going to blow up in the news pretty regularly between now and then.”
Other news organisations facing litigation by Mr Trump have settled out of court for “sums like $15m, $16m”, according to Mr Coleman.
The anticipation had been that it would be a speech of significance.
The White House had announced two days earlier that the president was to deliver an evening address to the nation.
Traditionally the 9pm slot, interrupting the prime-time schedule on all the networks, is reserved for big news – usually international in nature.
Speculation had grown through the day that he may use the speech to address the prospect of US military action in Venezuela.
Read more: Trump has told us why he’s going after Venezuela
Instead, Trump took the big audience moment to make what was essentially a campaign speech but delivered at speed and combative in tone.
He blamed former president Joe Biden for the economy he inherited, on the “brink of ruin”, adding that he is “bringing those high prices down and bringing them down very fast”.
Speaking from the White House Diplomatic Reception Room, he said: “Our country is back, stronger than ever before. We’re poised for an economic boom the likes of which the nation has never seen.
“It’s not done yet, but boy are we making progress, nobody can believe what’s going on.”
Flanked by Christmas trees, but the speech hardly offered goodwill to all men
He was speaking against an increasingly challenging backdrop politically and economically.
Petrol prices are down, but the broad cost of living continues to rise, and people do not seem to be feeling the economic boom he claims to be unleashing.
The unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in November, the highest it’s been for five years.
The only real announcement in his speech was a bonus for members of the military.
He said that the government would send cheques of $1,776 to all service members. The idea, he said, had only been finalised “about 30 minutes ago”, and the cheques were already in the post.
A fascinating speech – in tone if not substance
It was a very notable presidential address, not for what he announced because there was no big reveal. It was the tone which fascinated me.
The 9pm live address was his framing of his greatest hits from the past year, but delivered by an angry and frustrated man.
“Why are my polling numbers not better?” was the vibe he gave off.
“Why is the economy not doing better? Why are you – the voters – not feeling better off?”
Not actual quotes, but the clear subtext.
Read more: White House plaques attack ex-presidents
Trump’s address was a selection of his greatest hits. Pic: Reuters
It is his low polling, rising unemployment, the cost of living and inflation challenges which prompted this address.
Had he come out and, off script, with empathy, said – “look, I get it… it’s taking time for you to feel my economic success….” – if he’d said all that with meaning, I think that would have landed in a more sympathetic way.
Instead – reading, unusually, off a script, he came across as a very frustrated president and extremely defensive.
Here’s the worry for Team Trump. So often out and about with voters, I hear people say: “Oh I don’t really like his style, his language, his divisiveness. But he’s a businessman. He knows how to run the country and the economy.”
If he loses those people, he’s in real trouble. That’s especially true when combined with suggestions he is losing some in his base too – just listen to his fan-turned-foe, MAGA stalwart, Marjorie Taylor Green.
One last thought. There are observers who think Trump is kind of unhinged; losing his marbles a bit. The slightly strange tone of this speech will be evidence for them, for sure.
Donald Trump’s administration has installed new plaques beneath portraits of former presidents attacking his predecessors in the US president’s typical fashion.
Among the plaques, apparently written by Mr Trump himself, is one for Joe Biden reading: “Sleepy Joe Biden was, by far, the worst president in American history.”
The “Presidential Walk of Fame” at the White House features a picture or painting of every former US president – except Mr Biden, who has been replaced by a photo of an autopen.
Biden’s refers to ‘Sleepy Joe’. Pic: Reuters
Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed Mr Biden was not mentally capable by the end of his term as president and his staff made decisions on his behalf, using an autopen to sign them off without his knowledge.
The device reproduces a person’s signature, allowing them to repeatedly sign documents without having to do so by hand each time.
The damning decoration goes on to falsely accuse Mr Biden of winning the “most corrupt election ever” and claims he made “unprecedented use of the autopen.”
Obama’s says he presided over a ‘stagnant economy’. Pic: Reuters
Another plaque refers to “Barack Hussein Obama” as “one of the most divisive political figures in American history.”
The plaque underneath Bill Clinton’s photo reads: “In 2016, president Clinton’s wife, Hillary Clinton, lost the presidency to President Donald J Trump!”
Even George W Bush, a fellow Republican – though not a Trump supporter – is given a badge of rebuke, with his plaque saying the former president “started wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, both of which should not have happened.”
Bush’s plaque attacks the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pic: Reuters
The “Presidential Walk of Fame” is a recent addition to Mr Trump’s White House and displays the portraits along corridors between the Oval Office and the South Lawn.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said the plaques were an “eloquent” description of each president’s legacy.
“As a student of history, many were written directly by the president himself,” she said.
It is the latest change to Mr Trump’s White House, which has seen the increased use of gold-coloured accents and gilded fixtures that mimic the decorations in Trump Tower in New York and his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Rob Reiner’s son Nick made his first court appearance on Wednesday on two counts of first-degree murder in the killing of his parents.
Wearing a suicide prevention smock and shackles, the 32-year-old did not enter a plea as he appeared from behind the glass wall of a custody area.
His next court appearance will be on 7 January.
As it happened: Nick Reiner makes first court appearance
Nick Reiner makes his first court appearance on murder charges in this courtroom sketch. Pic: Reuters/Mona Edwards
Nick Reiner spoke only to say, “yes, your honour” to agree to the date.
He was charged Tuesday with killing the 78-year-old actor and director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced at a news conference.
Nick Reiner is being held without bail and could face the death penalty.
Along with the two counts of first-degree murder, prosecutors added a special circumstance of multiple murders, as well as an allegation that he personally used a dangerous and deadly weapon, a knife.
Speaking outside the court, Nick Reiner’s lawyer, Alan Jackson, called on the public not to “rush to judgement”.
Mr Jackson pointed to “complex and serious issues that are associated with this case” that needed to be thoroughly and “very carefully dealt with and examined”.
He added that it was a “devastating tragedy that has befallen the Reiner family”.
Rob Reiner, Michele Singer Reiner, Romy Reiner, Nick Reiner, Maria Gilfillan and Jake Reiner. Pic: JanuaryImages/Shutterstock
‘Unimaginable pain’
Nick Reiner’s two siblings Jake and Romy have released a statement, saying “words cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we are experiencing every moment of the day”.
“The horrific and devastating loss of our parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, is something that no one should ever experience,” they said.
“They weren’t just our parents; they were our best friends. We are grateful for the outpouring of condolences, kindness, and support we have received not only from family and friends but people from all walks of life.”
The two asked for “respect and privacy” and for speculation to be treated with “compassion and humanity”.
Authorities have not disclosed a motive for the killings.
Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner were found dead from apparent stab wounds in their home in the upscale Brentwood neighbourhood of Los Angeles.
The area near Rob Reiner’s home. Pic: AP
Read more from Sky News:
Moment Nick Reiner arrested for murder of his parents
Could Reiner actually face the death penalty?
Nick Reiner did not resist when he was arrested hours later near the University of Southern California, about 14 miles (22.5 kilometres) from the crime scene, according to police.
Rob Reiner was a celebrated director, whose work included some of the most memorable films of the 1980s and 1990s, including This Is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally and A Few Good Men.
He met Michele Singer, a photographer, movie producer and advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, in 1989, while directing When Harry Met Sally.
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