A federal judge has given President Donald Trump until December 11 to answer questions under oath in his defamation case against the BBC. If he misses the date to testify, he risks sanctions. These could include possible dismissal of his own lawsuit.
Judge orders Donald Trump to testify in BBC lawsuit
US Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett set the deadline after BBC lawyers told a Miami court on Thursday that Donald Trump still had not completed his deposition. Charles Tobin, the BBC’s attorney, pointed out that only two months remain in the discovery period. Lett said the president must sit for questioning by the aforementioned date unless the court extends that window. If he doesn’t, she warned, sanctions could follow. The harshest would be throwing out the case.
Before coming to this point, Trump called off a deposition scheduled for October 16, citing “matters of national importance”. The BBC’s lawyer told the court the president was campaigning in Georgia that day and had “prioritised that” over answering questions. Trump attended a midterms rally in Dalton, Georgia, and a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. Then last week, the BBC’s lawyers asked Lett to compel Trump to sit for the interview after the planned session never happened.
Trump’s legal team pushed back in a Wednesday filing. They said he could appear between January 11 and 22 next year. They also argued the BBC was “wrong to claim that President Trump is avoiding his deposition in this action.” That window falls after the judge’s deadline, so the two sides still need to resolve the gap.
For more context, Trump filed the suit in Florida over a Panorama episode that stitched together two separate sections of his speech before the 2021 Capitol riot. He accused the BBC of “intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring” the address he delivered outside the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The BBC has apologized for the error and acknowledged “the mistaken impression.”
For now, the case remains in discovery, the phase in which both sides exchange records that could serve as evidence. Whether Trump testifies by December 11 or gets an extension will decide what happens next in the BBC lawsuit.
