U.S. President Donald Trump is reportedly considering a plan for the U.S. government to directly take part in a $10 billion defamation lawsuit he filed against the British public broadcaster BBC.
According to the Financial Times (FT) on the 16th, the U.S. government said in a document filed with the court that it is considering taking part in the lawsuit.
At the end of last year, President Trump filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida seeking a total of $10 billion, or about 14.8 trillion won, in damages, saying a BBC documentary about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot distorted and edited his remarks and defamed him.
The U.S. government is said to have cited as grounds for considering intervention the fact that the BBC demanded document submissions a total of 48 times from various entities, including public institutions in the United States.
The BBC pushed back against the possibility of U.S. government involvement, saying there is a high risk of a conflict of interest. It said that although President Trump claims to have filed the suit in a personal capacity, it is difficult for federal agencies to be free from his influence given that he is the sitting president.
The BBC publicly apologized to President Trump for the way the documentary was edited but said it would respond vigorously to the lawsuit.
It is also asking the court to dismiss the case, saying there are insufficient grounds for a U.S. court to hear it because the documentary did not air in the United States.
In a separate filing, the BBC noted that while President Trump claims the documentary caused damage to his brand, asset, and business, he has not complied with requests to submit related financial records.