The BBC issued an apology to President Donald Trump following a misleading edit of a speech he delivered on Jan. 6, 2021.

But the U.K.'s public service broadcaster also said it didn't defame Trump, as well as rejected the basis for the president's $1 billion lawsuit threat.

This programme was reviewed after criticism of how President Donald Trump’s 6th January 2021 speech was edited. During that sequence, we showed excerpts taken from different parts of the speech," the BBC wrote in a retraction, which was published on Thursday.

However, we accept that our edit unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points in the speech, and that this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action. The BBC would like to apologise [sic] to President Trump for that error of judgement. This programme was not scheduled to be re-broadcast and will not be broadcast again in this form on any BBC platforms," the retraction continued.

The BBC also said Chair Samir Shah sent a personal letter to the White House, saying that he and the corporation were sorry for the editing.

The dispute is connected to an edition of the BBC’s flagship current affairs series “Panorama,” titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” It aired just before the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

The third-party production company that made the film 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.

The backlash was swift and severe. BBC Director-General Tim Davie and News CEO Deborah Turness resigned amid the growing criticism.

The TOP people in the BBC, including TIM DAVIE, the BOSS, are all quitting/FIRED, because they were caught 'doctoring' my very good (PERFECT!) speech of January 6th. Thank you to The Telegraph for exposing these Corrupt “Journalists.” These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election. On top of everything else, they are from a Foreign Country, one that many consider our Number One Ally. What a terrible thing for Democracy!" Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday.

The next day, Trump threatened to sue the BBC for at least $1 billion, accusing the broadcaster of defamation and portraying him as inciting violence. Trump's attorney had set a Friday deadline for the BBC to respond.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: The National News Desk Julia Varnier and The Associated Press contributed to this report.