Politics
Trump must testify by Dec. 11 in $10 billion BBC defamation case, judge says
A federal magistrate judge ordered President Donald Trump to give a deposition in his lawsuit against the BBC and warned the case could be dismissed if he fails to follow court orders. The judge also questioned whether Trump’s team had adequately searched for records related to the dispute.
MIAMI — President Donald Trump must sit for a deposition by Dec. 11 in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC, a federal magistrate judge ordered Thursday. The deadline could be extended.
At a hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett also warned Trump’s lawyers that the case could be dismissed if he does not comply with orders to provide records relevant to the lawsuit.
Trump alleges the BBC distorted his Jan. 6, 2021, speech by editing it for a documentary that aired in the United Kingdom in 2024. Lett said she was not persuaded that Trump’s legal team had completed a thorough search for documents related to the speech.
“It just strains credulity that there has been a thorough search,” Lett said, adding that she did not believe the plaintiffs had met their responsibility.
The order puts Trump’s own testimony and the completeness of his team’s document search at the center of the next steps in the case. The judge’s warning means failure to meet discovery requirements could jeopardize the lawsuit before its claims are resolved.