{"id":228421,"date":"2026-10-23T07:27:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T07:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-judge-orders-trump-to-sit-for-deposition-in-10bn-lawsuit-against-bbc-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T07:27:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T07:27:19","slug":"us-judge-orders-trump-to-sit-for-deposition-in-10bn-lawsuit-against-bbc-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-judge-orders-trump-to-sit-for-deposition-in-10bn-lawsuit-against-bbc-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"US judge orders Trump to sit for deposition in $10bn lawsuit against BBC – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judge threatens to dismiss Trump\u2019s BBC lawsuit unless he cooperates with discovery process and sits for deposition
Donald Trump has been ordered by a US judge to cooperate with the discovery process mandated for his lawsuit against the BBC and to sit for a deposition by 11 December \u2013 or else he could be subject to sanctions, including the possible dismissal of the $10bn lawsuit.
The lawsuit stems from a Panorama documentary aired by the BBC<\/a> that spliced together two comments made nearly an hour apart by Trump during a rally on 6 January 2021, before the US Capitol riot. The BBC has acknowledged that this specific edit was misleading, but Trump has gone on to claim, falsely, that the BBC did not just edit his speech but used AI to insert words into his speech.
While the broadcast was not readily available to view in Florida, Trump\u2019s team has argued that he was personally damaged by the broadcast under Florida\u2019s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
During a lengthy hearing dealing with a variety of discovery issues, federal magistrate judge Enjoliqu\u00e9 Lett on Thursday also rejected a request by Trump\u2019s legal team to prevent the seven-hour-long deposition from being videotaped, though it will only be accessible to attorneys in the case.
Lett agreed with contentions from the BBC\u2019s lawyers that Trump\u2019s team had not been sufficiently forthcoming in handing over internal documents relevant to the case ahead of an 18 December deadline for discovery.
\u201cWe still have a completely lopsided [situation] here on discovery. They have produced absolutely nothing of any substance,\u201d attorney Charles Tobin, on behalf of the BBC, argued in a Miami courtroom.
The documents that Trump\u2019s team have turned over have primarily been either pulled from the internet or provided by the BBC itself.
\u201cIt strains credulity that a thorough search has been done in order to determine that all of these requests have been responded to,\u201d Lett told Alejandro Brito, Trump\u2019s Florida-based attorney. \u201cThe court is not satisfied that anyone is doing a thorough job.\u201d
The judge gave the plaintiffs 30 days to produce the relevant documents. While she acknowledged that the discovery process can be \u201cburdensome\u201d on both parties, she said that \u201cfailure to do so could result in sanctions, including possible dismissal of the suit for failure to prosecute the case and engage in meaningful discovery process\u201d.
Of the Trump team\u2019s obligation to adequately participate in the discovery process, the judge said: \u201cThis is the last opportunity to do so.\u201d
After discussing the discovery process, the judge turned to the BBC\u2019s request to compel the president\u2019s team to agree for a deposition,<\/a> after a previously scheduled date \u2013 16 October \u2013 was cancelled for what Trump\u2019s counsel said were \u201cother matters of national importance\u201d. While the BBC noted that Trump was actually campaigning in Georgia on that day, leading Tobin to conclude that the plaintiff\u2019s team had transmitted \u201cfake news\u201d, Brito said the president was \u201cinvolved in a host of things\u201d on a daily basis that the BBC\u2019s legal team \u201chas no idea\u201d about.
While Lett said she was obligated to adhere to the discovery schedule mandated in the case, that timeline could be extended by district court judge Jeffrey T Kuntz. Tobin, representing the BBC, said his side was willing to push back the timeline for Trump\u2019s deposition if Kuntz adjusted the discovery schedule.
Lett once again threatened sanctions \u2013 including dismissal \u2013 if Trump\u2019s team did not comply with her deposition order.
\u201cThe lesson for the day is that no plaintiff is above the law, and no plaintiff is above the orders of the court,\u201d Tobin said.
In a filing on Wednesday, Trump\u2019s team said he would be willing to sit for a deposition during the second or third week of January.
During the hearing, Lett also allowed the BBC\u2019s subpoena to Mar-a-Lago, Trump\u2019s Florida club, to go ahead, despite protests from Trump\u2019s attorney that the business was separate from the president.
Brito, Trump\u2019s attorney, contended that the president does not run the club. \u201cThe president\u2019s occupation is the president of the United States,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has nothing to do with Mar-a-Lago as far as his occupation.\u201d
Tobin, representing the BBC, vehemently disagreed. \u201cTo say that Mar-a-Lago is not tied to this president or his reputation ignores the fact that he hosts [Ukrainian president] Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he hosts the president of Ireland, [Russian president] Vladimir Putin \u2013 he uses Mar-a-Lago as a location to publicize his reputation as a symbol of his personal power, so it is inextricably intertwined. His business successes are a measure of his reputation.\u201d
In issuing the ruling, the judge agreed that the club \u201cfalls within the scope of discoverability\u201d.
\u201cI think it is intertwined with his profession and therefore any harm that may be alleged under his professional trade and occupation would be reflected with how he conducts business with Mar-a-Lago, at least for discovery purposes,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judge threatens to dismiss Trump\u2019s BBC lawsuit unless he cooperates with discovery process and sits for depositionDonald Trump has been ordered by a US judge to cooperate with the discovery process mandated for his lawsuit against the BBC and to sit for a deposition by 11 December \u2013 or else he could be subject to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":228422,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}