Gregg Jarrett Drops Legal Take On Whether Trump Will Force BBC To Fork Over Billions In Lawsuit

Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett said Monday President Donald Trump had a good chance of showing that the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) engaged in a “clear case” of defamation against Trump.

Trump said he would sue the BBC for upwards of $1 billion to $5 billion over an edited video of his Jan. 6, 2021, White House Ellipse speech while on Air Force One Friday. Jarrett told “Fox and Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade the British state-funded broadcaster engaged in “shameful journalism” with an edited video that “falsely portrayed” Trump as supporting violence on Jan. 6, 2021. (RELATED: Leaked Dossier Accuses BBC Of Doctoring Trump’s Speech In Documentary: REPORT)

“The evidence, Brian, is overwhelming that the BBC misled viewers. They falsely portrayed Trump, as you showed it, inciting violence in a clear case of what I think is defamation,” Jarrett said. “They deleted his caution to act peacefully and they spliced the video to give the opposite impression, almost certainly defamatory. Or else why would the BBC apologize retract and remove the story, but the problem for it doesn’t erase the damages that Trump sustained over three years.”

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“I mean, they ran this thing constantly over a long period of time and they did the same thing two years earlier, same phony clip, causing harm to Trump’s reputation not just in Great Britain but worldwide,” Jarrett continued. “Disparaging, dishonest propaganda, quite deliberate. Shameful journalism, Brian.”

The Telegraph obtained a 19-page dossier by Michael Prescott, a former external advisor to the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee, which detailed how the network used spliced clips of Trumps speech that were 54 minutes apart to make it seem like he encouraged the riot at the Capitol building. Telegraph associate editor Gordon Rayner broke down how the video was edited to present the appearance that Trump endorsed the riot in a video posted by the newspaper on YouTube in which he held up a copy of the dossier, noting that the first part of the statement the BBC aired took place at 12:16 p.m. EST.

“The BBC spliced together two clips that took place 54 minutes apart,” Rayner said in the video after replaying the BBC’s clip. Rayner then demonstrated that the second part of the clip the BBC aired was from remarks made at 1:10 p.m. EST.

“We’ll sue them for between a billion and $5 billion probably some time next week,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “I think I have to do it. I mean, they have even admitted that they cheated.”

The BBC apologized to Trump Thursday in a letter from chairman Samir Shah after two top officials at the company resigned following the dossier’s release, saying the program would not air again.

“Do you think he’s going to get significant damages?” Kilmeade asked Jarrett. “Do you think that money is shoot for the sky and get what you get?”

“It’s hard to put a value on it at this early juncture, but it’s considerable. Two top executives resigned in disgrace when they removed the slander and yet the BBC still claims it wasn’t defamatory, which is absurd,” Jarrett said. “They knew it was wrong. Equally ludicrous is their insistence there is no institutional bias at the BBC. Really? Take a look at their own internal memo from their standards adviser exposing the newsroom for its pervasive, liberal bias corrupting the network’s reporting.” (RELATED: Coincidence? Major Outlet Reportedly Made 100 Mistakes Each Year About War In Gaza)

Trump has won settlements from media outlets over their coverage of him. He secured a $15 million settlement with ABC in December 2024 after he sued the outlet on March 19, 2024, for defamation over “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos falsely saying Trump was found “liable for rape” during a contentious March 10, 2024, appearance by Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina.

Paramount announced it settled a $10 billion lawsuit filed by Trump over the editing of an October 2024 interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who was Trump’s opponent in the 2024 presidential election, on “60 Minutes” on July 2.

Jarrett noted that he thought Trump would sue the BBC in the United States. “I don’t know if he is going to file in the United States or Great Britain,” Jarrett told Kilmeade. “Here in the U.S. it’s harder for a plaintiff. You have to prove actual malice knowingly false or in reckless disregard. In Great Britain, just the opposite, the burden of proof shifts to the defendant to disprove the defamatory video. My guess is he will sue here in the U.S. But I think his damages are considerable.”

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