Judge orders Trump to sit for deposition in BBC defamation suit by Dec. 11

A federal judge in Miami has ordered President Donald Trump to sit for a deposition by Dec. 11 in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC, according to multiple news outlets.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett issued the order at a hearing on Thursday. She also warned Trump's attorneys that his complaint could be dismissed if the president does not comply with court orders to give lawyers for the British broadcaster records relevant to the case, Politico reported.

Trump's legal team had asked for the deposition to be held between Jan. 11 and Jan. 22.

Dispute over a canceled deposition

Charles Tobin, an attorney for the BBC, told the judge that Trump had originally agreed to sit for a deposition on Oct. 16 but canceled it, citing a "matter of national importance," according to the Associated Press. Tobin said Trump was in fact campaigning in Georgia that day.

"He was participating in party politics and prioritized that over sitting for the deposition," Tobin told the court.

Contacted by CNBC for comment, the BBC said: "We have nothing to add."

In a recent court filing, the BBC's lawyers accused Trump's legal team of foot-dragging on requests for documents and records relevant to the case, a process known as discovery. The filing said that with only two months of discovery remaining, the president had not even tried to meet his obligations, and that the material produced had either already been handed to him by the BBC or gathered from publicly available webpages in the days before production.

The lawsuit and the documentary

Trump sued the BBC on Dec. 15, alleging the outlet produced a "false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction of President Trump" in a Panorama documentary that aired one week before the 2024 presidential election.

The complaint says the film, "Trump: A Second Chance," was edited to make it falsely appear that Trump urged his supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol during his Jan. 6, 2021, speech outside the White House. It describes the documentary as a "brazen attempt" to interfere with and influence the outcome of the election "to President Trump's detriment."

The BBC's chair apologized for the edit shortly before the suit was filed, and the broadcaster promised not to air the documentary again or show it on any of its platforms. In a statement on Nov. 13, 2025, the BBC said: "While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim."

Source: CNBC.