A United States federal magistrate judge has directed President Donald Trump to sit for a sworn deposition by December 11 in his ongoing defamation case against the British Broadcasting Corporation. The legal battle centers on a segment broadcast on the BBC investigative program Panorama, which combined separate excerpts from a speech delivered by Trump shortly before the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
During a recent court hearing, attorneys for the British broadcaster pressed for judicial intervention, noting that the plaintiff had not yet sat for questioning as the discovery phase nears its conclusion. The push for a deposition followed the cancellation of an earlier interview session scheduled for mid-October. At that time, representatives for Trump pointed to urgent campaign obligations and matters of national importance while he was traveling in Georgia.
Under standard American legal procedures, a deposition requires a party to answer questions under oath outside of a courtroom, with the recorded testimony preserved for potential use during trial proceedings. US Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett ruled that the interview must take place by the mid-December deadline unless the court grants an extension to the discovery schedule.
Legal counsel for Trump subsequently submitted court filings proposing an alternative timeline for the deposition between January 11 and January 22 of next year. The defense team pushed back against assertions that the president was intentionally evading the questioning process.
The underlying lawsuit, filed in Florida, alleges that the broadcaster deliberately manipulated footage of the speech given outside the US Capitol. The BBC previously acknowledged a production mistake in the documentary, admitting that the editing created an erroneous impression that the former president was explicitly inciting violence.
Following the broadcast, the media organization issued an apology and urged the court to throw out the lawsuit. The broadcaster contended that the program failed to satisfy the legal thresholds required for defamation and was never actually broadcast or distributed within the United States.
Earlier in the litigation, Trump's legal team withdrew claims that the documentary had been accessible to American audiences through specific streaming platforms and subscription services. The president also agreed to dismiss the commercial arm of the broadcaster from the lawsuit after it was established that the commercial entity had no involvement in the production or creation of the program.
Reporting based on coverage first published by BBC News. Read the original report at BBC News.
