Trump Ordered To Give Deposition In $10B Defamation Lawsuit Against BBC

A federal judge on Thursday ordered Donald Trump to sit for a deposition by December 11 in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC, which has accused the US president of delaying proceedings to avoid answering questions under oath.

 

Trump is suing Britain’s publicly funded broadcaster for at least $10 billion over a misleadingly edited clip of a speech. The case is one of several lawsuits Trump has privately filed against news organisations as part of a wider campaign to challenge media coverage he dislikes.

 

US Magistrate Judge Enjolique Lett ordered Trump to answer questions under oath from the BBC’s lawyers, according to a spokesman for Trump’s personal legal team. The ruling was delivered from the bench at a court hearing on Thursday. Trump cancelled a deposition scheduled for October, citing conflicts with his presidential duties.

 

A spokesman for Trump said the lawsuit was intended to hold the BBC accountable for defamation and “reckless election interference”.

 

The BBC declined to comment. It has previously acknowledged that the edits were misleading and apologised to Trump, while denying liability for defamation.

 

Trump’s lawsuit, filed in December in a federal court in Florida, accuses the BBC of deliberately misleading viewers into believing he had directed supporters to storm the US Capitol by splicing together separate portions of a speech delivered on January 6, 2021.

 

In court filings, the broadcaster has accused Trump and his lawyers of delaying their responses to requests for records and other information exchanged between parties during discovery, the pre-trial process through which litigants obtain evidence from each other.

 

The BBC is seeking financial records from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club and the network of business entities associated with him. It argues that the information is necessary to defend itself against Trump’s claims for damages.

 

Trump’s lawyers have argued that the requests are overly broad and irrelevant to the case. They have also denied in court filings that the president is seeking to avoid a deposition, maintaining that his official duties and security requirements must take priority.

 

The edited speech appeared in a BBC Panorama documentary shortly before the 2024 US presidential election, which Trump won. A leaked internal BBC memo cited the edits as evidence of potential political bias, triggering a public relations crisis for the broadcaster and prompting high-level resignations.