Can Trump Win a Defamation Lawsuit in the US?

In a Fox News interview released on Tuesday, Donald Trump says he has an ‘obligation’ to sue the BBC for the way it edited a section of a speech he made on January 6th 2021 - the day of the US Capitol riots - as part of a Panorama documentary. The Chair of the BBC, Samir Shah said “the BBC would like to apologise for that error of judgement”.

The BBC has been given a Friday deadline by Trump to respond or face possible legal action, with the US president threatening to sue the corporation for a billion dollars.

Anthony and Marianna speak to Elie Honig, CNN’s Senior Legal Analyst who assesses the likelihood of the case ending up in court, and how any damages could be calculated. We also look at whether any of Trump’s previous legal actions against other media outlets can predict how this dispute may play out.

Plus, newly released emails between Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein from 2011 allege that Donald Trump 'spent hours' with one of Epstein’s victims. The documents have been published by House Democrats and refer to the president as the "dog that hasn't barked.” Donald Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing and has accused Democrats of “trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown, and so many other subjects.”

Anthony and Marianna unpack what this means for the administration and whether it could affect the president’s approval ratings.

HOSTS: * Marianna Spring, Social Media Investigations correspondent * Anthony Zurcher, North America correspondent

GUEST: * Elie Honig, Senior Legal Analyst at CNN

GET IN TOUCH: * Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB * Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480 * Email Americast@bbc.co.uk * Or use #Americast

This episode was made by George Dabby and Grace Reeve. The technical producer was Ben Andrews. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

If you want to be notified every time we publish a new episode, please subscribe to us on BBC Sounds by hitting the subscribe button on the app.

You can now listen to Americast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Americast”. It works on most smart speakers.

US Election Unspun: Sign up for Anthony’s BBC newsletter: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68093155

Americast is part of the BBC News Podcasts family of podcasts. The team that makes Americast also makes lots of other podcasts, including Newscast and Ukrainecast. If you enjoy Americast (and if you're reading this then you hopefully do), then we think that you will enjoy some of our other pods too. See links below.

Newscast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/p05299nl Ukrainecast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0bqztzm Radical: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0gg4k6r The Global Story: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w13xtvsd