A judge has ordered former President Donald Trump to sit for a deposition in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett ruled that Trump must provide his deposition by December 11, unless the discovery deadline is extended beyond December 18.
The order follows complaints from the BBC's legal counsel regarding delays, including Trump's cancellation of a previously scheduled deposition for October 16. The BBC had filed a motion to compel Trump's deposition, noting that while they understood his deposition required additional planning, he had accepted the obligations of civil litigation when he filed the lawsuit.
Trump initiated the $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC late last year, alleging that its 2024 "Panorama" documentary distorted his remarks to supporters on January 6, 2021. According to Trump's legal team, the documentary misleadingly spliced together portions of a lengthy address, omitting his call for supporters to protest peacefully.
"The formerly respected and now disgraced BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally, maliciously and deceptively doctoring his speech in a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 presidential election," a spokesperson for Trump's legal team told Fox News Digital. "The BBC has a long pattern of deceiving its audience in coverage of President Trump, all in service of its own leftist political agenda. President Trump’s powerhouse lawsuit is holding the BBC accountable for its defamation and reckless election interference just as he has held other fake news mainstream media responsible for their wrongdoing."
A spokesperson for the BBC declined to comment.
The lawsuit centers on a segment of the documentary that quoted Trump saying, "We're going to walk down to the Capitol. And we fight — we fight like hell." Trump's team asserts that this quote was presented out of context and that his subsequent remarks, made 54 minutes later, included a call for supporters to "fight like hell" for election integrity and to "show strength." The documentary's edit, they claim, created a false impression.
The BBC previously issued an apology for an erroneous edit and removed the program from its platforms. However, the broadcaster has maintained that the mistake does not rise to the level of defamation. The controversy surrounding the documentary's editing reportedly led to the resignations of BBC News CEO Deborah Turness and BBC Director-General Tim Davie.