BBC asks judge to force Trump to sit for deposition in his own lawsuit against them
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Lawyers representing the BBC are asking a Florida court to compel President Donald Trump to sit for a deposition in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the British broadcaster, accusing him of delaying the process until January 2027.
In a court filing this week, BBC attorneys said Trump canceled an agreed-upon deposition scheduled for Oct. 16, citing “matters of national importance.” They are now seeking the court’s intervention, arguing that the delay threatens the broadcaster’s ability to prepare its defense before the discovery period ends.
“With 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,” attorney Charles D. Tobin wrote. “Those delays have flouted the cooperative spirit of discovery and precluded the BBC from obtaining the evidence necessary to robustly litigate its defense.”
Trump filed the lawsuit in December 2025, seeking $10 billion in damages over a BBC documentary titled Trump: A Second Chance. He accused the broadcaster of defamation, deceptive trade practices and unfair trade practices, alleging that its reporting misrepresented his remarks and sought to influence the 2024 presidential election.
The dispute centers on the BBC’s editing of a speech Trump delivered to supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, before the attack on the U.S. Capitol. The broadcaster acknowledged that the documentary spliced together remarks from separate portions of the speech, creating the impression that Trump had directly urged violence.
In his 33-page complaint, Trump accused the BBC of broadcasting a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction of President Trump,” describing the documentary as “a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence” the 2024 election.
The BBC apologized to Trump for the editing, and both the broadcaster’s director-general and its top news executive resigned. The BBC, however, has denied that the documentary defamed Trump.
According to the latest filing, BBC lawyers first sought dates for Trump’s deposition in July and followed up repeatedly before the parties agreed to Oct. 16.
After weeks without a response, Trump’s attorneys informed the BBC on Sept. 28 that the president was no longer available on the agreed date because of “other matters of national importance.” They said they would try to provide an alternative date by the end of that week, but, according to the filing, no replacement date was provided.
BBC lawyers said they were subsequently informed that Trump had no availability for a deposition before discovery closes on Dec. 18. Instead, his legal team indicated that he could appear during the second or third week of January 2027.
A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team did not address the reasons for the delay in a statement responding to the filing. Instead, the spokesperson reiterated the president’s allegations against the broadcaster, saying Trump was 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.”
Trump has previously withdrawn from litigation shortly before a scheduled deposition. In 2023, he voluntarily dismissed a $500 million lawsuit against his former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen days before he was due to give testimony in the case.
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