‘He has no case!’ Former BBC insider predicts Donald Trump’s lawsuit will collapse as BBC demands January 6 messages

A former BBC insider has predicted President Trump's legal action against the broadcaster will fail, arguing the US President “has no case” as the corporation seeks access to his communications.

John Mair, who worked as a current affairs producer for the broadcaster, was reacting to the BBC demanding Mr Trump hands over his personal messages from January 6.

The broadcaster's lawyers are hoping to prove that the US leader had incited the 2021 storming of the US Capitol, the debate of which forms the basis of his lawsuit.

Mr Trump filed a $10billion lawsuit against the BBC after its Panorama programme spliced together two clips from his speech in DC which suggested he had called on supporters to “fight like hell”.

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Mr Mair defended the BBC’s series of subpoenas to seize messages sent to and from Mr Trump's closest allies on January 6.

“They have a right to seek access under discovery to his communications with people on January 6, 2021,” he said.

“Mr Trump could come to the BBC and ask what Tim Davie said about this. You can ask what the producer said about it.

“I see that they want to come to England to interview Mr Davie, so why not have this?”

Mr Mair rejected the idea that the subpoenas were an act of desperation from the BBC, suggesting that it was, in fact, the US leader’s case that was weakening.

“(Donald) Trump's little lawsuit is getting thinner and thinner and thinner.

“He really has no case,” the former BBC man claimed.

He pointed to the President's decision to drop his claim against BBC Studios.

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“Panorama wasn’t shown in America. It wasn't shown in Florida. So he has no case there.

“I've spoken to lawyers in Britain, not BBC lawyers, who say there is no case and it will be thrown out. So why is he wasting his time?

“What he's trying to do is bully the BBC by wanting to take all of their licence fee money,” Mr Mair added.

Nevertheless, the former producer acknowledged that the BBC had “no defence” for an editing error at the centre of the dispute.

“It was downright plain stupid. Whoever did that should be sacked, or has been sacked.”

“But the BBC apologised for it," he said.

BBC Director-General Tim Davie and Head of News Deborah Turness both stepped down in the wake of the scandal.

Mr Davie subsequently blamed “enemies” of the BBC for stoking the controversy surrounding the corporation, but declared the broadcaster “the very best of society”.

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