A federal judge has ordered President Donald Trump to sit for a deposition in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC by December 11, or face sanctions up to the dismissal of his own case, the Associated Press reported.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett issued the order during a hearing in Miami after BBC attorneys told the court that Trump's lawyers had delayed his appearance for months. The two sides had agreed on an October 16 deposition date, but Trump's legal team canceled it on September 28, citing what it called a matter of national importance, and later proposed rescheduling for January 2027 — after the December 18 discovery deadline.
BBC attorney Charles Tobin told the court that with two months remaining in discovery, "we still haven't been able to depose the plaintiff," noting that Trump spent October 16 campaigning in Georgia rather than appearing for questioning. Trump's attorney Alejandro Brito defended the president's scheduling constraints, but Lett rejected the delay.
The judge also rejected Trump's bid to block video recording, allowing the seven-hour questioning to be preserved on video for use in the litigation. She further directed the Justice Department to respond by November 2 to a request from former special counsel Jack Smith, whom the BBC has subpoenaed, to testify.
Trump sued the BBC in Florida in December 2025, alleging that a 2024 Panorama documentary about the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot deceptively edited his speech to suggest he encouraged violence. The lawsuit seeks $5 billion in damages plus another $5 billion under Florida's deceptive trade practices law, according to the New York Post. The BBC has apologized for what it called an editing error but denies defamation, and has moved to dismiss the case — a ruling that now hinges partly on whether Trump complies with the December 11 deadline.
Photo: Official 2025 presidential portrait of Donald J. Trump by Daniel Torok / The White House (public domain).