Judge orders Trump to give deposition in $10bn BBC lawsuit

Donald Trump must sit for a deposition by 11 December in his $10bn lawsuit against the BBC, a US federal magistrate judge has ordered. Judge Enjoliqué Lett warned that failure to comply with the deposition and broader discovery requirements could result in sanctions, including dismissal of the case, according to the Guardian and Euronews. The lawsuit concerns a BBC Panorama documentary that combined two portions of Trump’s speech at a rally on 6 January 2021.

The Guardian reported that the excerpts were nearly an hour apart and that the BBC acknowledged the edit was misleading. The broadcaster apologised and two senior executives resigned, while denying that the programme amounted to defamation. Trump filed the lawsuit in December 2025.

Euronews said his 33-page complaint accused the BBC of presenting a false, defamatory and malicious depiction of him and alleged an attempt to influence the 2024 US presidential election. The case also invokes Florida’s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act, with Trump’s legal team arguing that the broadcast personally harmed him. During a hearing in Florida, the BBC’s lawyers accused Trump’s team of failing to provide relevant internal documents.

Charles Tobin, representing the broadcaster, said the plaintiff’s production had been largely empty of substantive material and that documents supplied so far had mainly been obtained from the internet or from the BBC itself. Judge Lett gave Trump’s lawyers 30 days to produce the relevant documents. She said the court was not satisfied that a thorough search had been completed and described the latest order as the final opportunity to comply meaningfully with the discovery process.

The discovery deadline is 18 December, unless it is extended by district judge Jeffrey Kuntz. The judge also rejected a request from Trump’s team to prevent the deposition from being videotaped. The session is expected to last seven hours, although the recording will be available only to attorneys in the case, according to the Guardian.

Trump’s lawyers had previously cancelled a deposition scheduled for 16 October, citing other matters of national importance. The BBC’s lawyers challenged that explanation, saying Trump had been campaigning in Georgia that day. Trump’s attorney, Alejandro Brito, said the president was involved in numerous activities that the BBC’s lawyers did not understand.

In a filing before the hearing, Trump’s team said he would instead be willing to give evidence in the second or third week of January. Lett also allowed a BBC subpoena directed at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida club, to proceed. Brito argued that the club was a separate business and unrelated to Trump’s occupation as president.

The BBC said the property was closely connected to Trump’s public reputation and business activities. The judge ruled that it fell within the scope of discoverable material for the case. The reports differ in how they describe the documentary’s alleged wrongdoing.

Euronews presents the dispute principally as a defamation action over an edit that made Trump appear to encourage violence at the Capitol. The Guardian additionally notes Trump’s claim that the BBC used artificial intelligence to insert words into his speech, a claim it describes as false. Both reports say the broadcaster acknowledged the misleading edit but continues to deny defamation.