A federal judge in Florida on Thursday ordered President Donald Trump to sit for a deposition in his defamation lawsuit against the BBC by Dec. 11 or face the possibility of having his $10 billion action dismissed.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett handed down the order after the BBC’s lawyers complained that Trump was stalling. He was supposed to sit for a deposition on Oct. 16 but canceled it for a “matter of national importance.”
BBC attorney Charles Tobin told the judge that matter turned out to be a political rally and a fundraiser.
“He was participating in party politics and prioritized that over sitting for the deposition,” Tobin said.
Trump’s attorneys had proposed postponing his deposition until late January, which Tobin said was too late. Discovery in the case is supposed to close on Dec. 18, and Trump is the single most important witness in the case since he’s the one who claims he suffered billions of dollars in damages from the BBC’s story, Tobin said.
Lett also ruled that the deposition can be videotaped —something Trump attorney Alejandro Brito argued against.
The BBC declined comment. The White House referred a request for comment to a representative for Trump’s personal legal team, who did not immediately respond.
Trump filed suit against the British news organization last year, alleging it aired a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction” of him in a documentary that spliced together comments from his speech at the Ellipse ahead of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
The BBC has acknowledged splicing comments from the speech together, but maintains Trump was not defamed and that he did not suffer any damages.
The BBC issued a subpoena to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club for information on whether membership applications and fees were affected by its documentary, which did not air in the U.S.
Brito had argued that subpoena should be quashed because Trump is not arguing the show impacted the business.
Tobin countered that Trump’s suit says the documentary “injured President Trump in his profession, occupation and trade,” so that information should be fair game. Lett agreed that it “falls within” the kind of information that should be turned over.
