A US magistrate judge has ordered Donald Trump to complete a sworn deposition by December 11 in his multimillion-dollar defamation lawsuit against the BBC, following the cancellation of a previously scheduled interview session. US Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett issued the strict deadline during a court hearing in Miami, warning that failure to comply could result in severe legal sanctions, including the potential dismissal of the case.
The Dispute Over the October Deposition
The legal clash centers on a deposition that was initially slated for October 16. Trump’s legal team cancelled the appearance, citing unspecified “matters of national importance” that required the president’s immediate attention. However, attorneys representing the BBC pushed back against that justification during the Miami proceedings. Charles Tobin, counsel for the broadcaster, informed the court that Trump had instead spent the day attending a midterms campaign rally in Dalton, Georgia, and participating in a fundraiser at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida, arguing that the political events had been prioritized over court-ordered discovery obligations.
In response to the missed appointment, the BBC requested that the magistrate compel Trump to sit for questioning. While Trump’s attorneys countered in subsequent filings that the deposition could be rescheduled for January, Judge Lett ruled that the process must move forward within the existing discovery window, setting the firm December 11 deadline ahead of a provisionally scheduled trial in February 2027.
Core Allegations and Procedural History
The underlying defamation lawsuit stems from an episode of the BBC programme *Panorama*, which edited together two distinct segments of a speech Trump delivered near the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump’s complaint alleges that the broadcaster intentionally and deceptively altered the remarks to create the false impression that he was directly inciting violence before the Capitol riot.
The BBC previously issued an acknowledgment regarding the edited footage, noting that the broadcast created a mistaken impression, but has moved to have the lawsuit dismissed entirely. The network’s legal team argues that the programme does not meet the legal thresholds for defamation under US jurisdiction and was not widely distributed within the United States. Earlier in the litigation, Trump’s legal representatives conceded they lacked evidence supporting initial claims that the documentary was available on domestic subscription platforms or through US broadcasters, and they subsequently dropped a separate claim against BBC Studios after the commercial arm established it had no role in producing the documentary.