A federal judge has given President Donald Trump a hard deadline in his own $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC: sit down for a deposition by Dec. 11, or face sanctions that could go as far as having the case thrown out.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett issued the order Thursday during a hearing in Miami, according to the Associated Press. The order came after the BBC’s lawyers told the court that Trump had been stalling on his own deposition, even though he is the one who brought the case.
A “matter of national importance”
Both sides had agreed on a date months ago. In an Oct. 13 court filing, the BBC’s lawyers said they first asked for deposition dates in July and followed up repeatedly before the two sides settled on Oct. 16.
Then, on Sept. 28, Trump’s lawyers wrote that “the President is no longer available for his deposition on October 16 due to other matters of national importance,” and promised to offer a replacement date by the end of that week. According to the BBC, they never did.
In court Thursday, BBC attorney Charles Tobin said Trump was actually campaigning in Georgia on Oct. 16. NBC News reported that Tobin told the judge the “matter” turned out to be a political rally and a fundraiser.
“He was participating in party politics and prioritized that over sitting for the deposition,” Tobin said.
The BBC also said it was told Trump “has no availability whatsoever” for a deposition before the discovery period closes on Dec. 18, and that he would instead make himself available in the second or third week of January 2027, after discovery ends.
“Two months of discovery remaining, the BBC still has not been able to depose, and does not even have a schedule to depose, the most central figure in this case: Plaintiff himself,” Tobin wrote in the filing.
The judge’s order
Judge Lett ruled that Trump must sit for the deposition by Dec. 11 or face sanctions up to dismissal of his lawsuit, unless the discovery period is extended past Dec. 18, the AP reported.
The AP noted that Trump “has often avoided depositions.”
What the lawsuit is about
Trump filed the suit last December, seeking $10 billion in damages. He accuses the publicly funded British broadcaster of defamation and deceptive and unfair trade practices over a documentary, “Trump: A Second Chance.”
The BBC has acknowledged that the filmmakers spliced together quotes from different sections of the speech Trump gave his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, before the storming of the U.S. Capitol, making it seem he was directly urging violence. The broadcaster apologized for the editing, and both the head of the BBC and its top news executive resigned. But the BBC denies that it defamed Trump.
The Jack Smith fight
The two sides are also battling over whether former special counsel Jack Smith should be deposed. The BBC subpoenaed Smith earlier this month as part of its defense.
Trump’s lawyers argued that Smith “lacks any personal knowledge” of the issues in the case, since he wasn’t present for the Jan. 6 speech or involved in preparing it, and that his testimony would be duplicative of his public report and congressional testimony.
The BBC’s lawyers countered that “it is difficult to imagine a more authoritative source on these issues than Mr. Smith, who spent years gathering evidence on those topics with the force of the Justice Department and the power of the grand jury behind him.”
“No one forced Plaintiff to file this lawsuit and to dispute that his speech on January 6 incited the violence that followed at the Capitol,” the BBC argued. “But as long as he chooses to maintain the case, he cannot commit the fundamental injustice of preventing the BBC from obtaining the evidence it needs to robustly defend itself.”
NBC News said it had reached out to the White House and the BBC for comment.
Trump now has until Dec. 11 to answer questions under oath in the case he chose to file.