00:00In Trump terms, a one billion lawsuit threat is not that much money when you compare it to some of the other ones he's taken previously.
00:06But how real of a risk is it for the BBC?
00:09Well, the BBC has around eight to nine billion US dollars of revenue.
00:14So one billion for the BBC would be an extraordinary amount of money.
00:18Having said that, lawyers both here in the UK and the US have questioned the validity of that figure.
00:23It's effectively a number pulled out of thin air, they say.
00:26As to the reality of whether a lawsuit could go ahead, that partially depends on, for example, whether it was attempted here in the UK or the United States,
00:33with all indications so far that if it got to that stage, we would be talking about a US lawsuit.
00:39And if that is the case, of course, there's the First Amendment in the United States relating to free speech is something the BBC could potentially rely on.
00:46Also, Donald Trump has a history of doing this, both sending these threatening letters and then no action taking place,
00:52or where libel action did continue, those not being very successful in the court.
00:57So at this stage, it could be as simple as this is meant to be a warning to the BBC as to what it will actually do,
01:03whether the BBC will try and settle this some other way or whether even the UK government might get involved or remains to be seen.
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