The 33-page lawsuit accuses the BBC of broadcasting a “false, defamatory, deceptive, defamatory, inflammatory, and malicious portrayal of President Trump,” calling it “a futile attempt to interfere and influence” the 2024 US presidential election.

It accused the BBC of “combining two completely separate parts of President Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021” to “deliberately misrepresent what President Trump said.”

The BBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

the The broadcaster apologized last month to Trump for editing the Jan. 6 speech. But the publicly funded broadcaster rejected claims that it defamed him, after Trump threatens legal action.

BBC chairman Samir Shah called it an “error in judgement,” which led to resignations at the BBC. top executive and its head of news.

The speech came before some of Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol as Congress prepares to certify the victory of President-elect Joe Biden in the 2020 election that Trump has accused of being stolen from him.

The BBC aired a one-hour documentary – titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” — days before the 2024 US presidential election. It spliced ​​together three excerpts from two sections of the 2021 speech, delivered nearly an hour apart, in what appeared to be an excerpt in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” Among the parts that were cut was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.

Trump said Monday that he was suing the BBC “for putting words in my mouth.”

“They really put horrible words in my mouth that had to do with Jan. 6 that I didn’t say, and they were beautiful words, that I said, right?” the president said unprompted during an appearance in the Oval Office. “They were nice words, talking about patriotism and all the good things I said. They didn’t say that, but they put terrible words.”

The president’s lawsuit was filed in Florida. Deadlines to bring the case to British courts expired more than a year ago.

Legal experts have brought possible challenges to a case in the US because the documentary has not been shown in the country.

The lawsuit says that people in the US can watch original BBC content, including the “Panorama” series, which includes documentaries, by using the subscription streaming platform BritBox.

The 103-year-old BBC is a national institution funded by an annual license fee of 174.50 pounds ($230) paid by each household watching live TV or BBC content. Bound by the terms of its charter to be nonpartisan, it often faces intense scrutiny and criticism from conservatives and liberals alike.