BBC “Determined” To Fight Donald Trump Legal Action, Chair Tells Staff

The BBC is “determined” to fight the Donald Trump multi-billion dollar legal threat and “protect our licence fee payers,” according to chair Samir Shah.

In a just-sent internal note, seen by Deadline, Shah said: “I want to be very clear with you – our position has not changed. There is no basis for a defamation case and we are determined to fight this.”

Shah was of course referring to the Trump editing scandal, which has caused the resignations of Director General Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness. Trump has threatened legal action of at least $1B this week over the Panorama edit, which spliced together two segments of his Jan 6 speech to make it appear that he was inciting a riot.

The BBC has apologized to Trump but Shah, who has called the edit an “error of judgement,” maintained that the corporation does not believe the POTUS has a defamation claim, a view backed up by numerous legal commentators.

“There is a lot being written, said and speculated upon about the possibility of legal action, including potential costs or settlements,” said Shah. “In all this we are, of course, acutely aware of the privilege of our funding and the need to protect our licence fee payers, the British public.”

The vast majority of UK adults pay the annual £174.50 ($230) license fee and the idea of any portion of that money going to Trump may be too much for the British public to stomach. The $1B sum is the equivalent of roughly double the BBC’s annual news and current affairs budget.

Shah has been busy grappling with staff frustration over his handling of the situation along with question marks over the influence of board member Robbie Gibb.

He said the BBC executive team “plan to spend as much time as possible with their teams over the coming weeks to reinforce the importance of that work and answer your questions.”

“We’ll sue them for anywhere between $1 billion and $5 billion, probably sometime next week,” a chatty Trump told reporters last Friday night.