Judge orders Trump to be deposed in his BBC defamation suit

A federal judge ordered President Trump to be deposed as part of his lawsuit against the BBC over a documentary he says defamed him with how it was edited.

Trump must be deposed by BBC lawyers before Dec. 11, U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett ruled, according to The Associated Press , or face sanctions up to dismissal of his lawsuit.

Lawyers for the president have sought in recent weeks to delay any testimony from the president, saying it notified the BBC legal team the “Plaintiff would make himself available for a deposition in the second or third week of January 2027.”

The president was previously scheduled to sit for a deposition on Oct. 16 until the BBC said Trump’s attorneys informed them “the President is no longer available for his deposition on October 16 due to other matters of national importance.”

Trump is suing the BBC for $10 billion over the way it edited a documentary about his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The president is shown giving a speech rallying his supporters before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, but the BBC omitted comments he gave telling the crowd to march “peacefully and patriotically” to the Capitol that day.

The BBC later apologized for the edit and ousted a number of its senior leadership officials in the wake of Trump’s lawsuit, which it has vowed to fight.