US President Donald Trump sent the BBC a letter threatening a lawsuit of “no less” than US$1 billion if the British broadcaster does not retract a Panorama documentary by November 14, over the editing of a speech he made.

BBC chairman Samir Shah on Monday apologised for the “error of judgment”, which triggered the resignations of the BBC’s top executive and its head of news.

The BBC’s top executive and its head of news both quit on Sunday over accusations of bias and misleading editing of a speech Trump delivered on January 6, 2021, before a crowd of his supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington.

Asked about a letter from Trump threatening legal action over the incident, the BBC said in a statement on Monday that “we will review the letter and respond directly in due course”. It did not provide further details.

Earlier, Trump welcomed the resignations of BBC Director-General Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness, saying the way his speech was edited was an attempt to “step on the scales of a Presidential Election”.

The hourlong documentary – titled Trump: A Second Chance? – was broadcast as part of the BBC’s Panorama series days before the 2024 US presidential election. It spliced together three quotes from two sections of the 2021 speech, delivered almost an hour apart, into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell”. Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.