BBC moves to compel Trump deposition in his $10B defamation suit

Magistrate judge schedules October 22 hearing on the dispute

The BBC asked a federal judge in Florida on Tuesday to compel President Donald Trump to sit for a deposition in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the British broadcaster, after his legal team canceled a scheduled October 16 session and pushed the proposed date past the case’s discovery deadline. The motion escalates a procedural standoff that, according to the BBC’s filing, has left the broadcaster unable to question the plaintiff even as it has produced seven of its own witnesses for questioning.

According to the Tuesday filing, the BBC and Trump’s legal team had agreed that he would be deposed on Friday. The BBC’s lawyers wrote to the judge that they have spent months trying to secure a location for the deposition, and had pledged to keep any location confidential. On September 28, Trump’s lawyers told the BBC’s counsel that the president “is no longer available for his deposition on October 16 due to other matters of national importance,” according to the filing.

While Trump’s lawyers said they would follow up quickly with a replacement date, they did not, ultimately suggesting that he would be available in the second or third week of January — well after the deadline to complete the discovery portion of the case.

In the motion, the BBC asked the court to require Trump’s team to confirm a deposition date, notify the BBC of a secure location and any other logistics needed to ensure the president’s safety, and proceed with the deposition. “Plaintiff chose to file this lawsuit and, in doing so, he accepted the obligations of civil litigation,” the motion reads. “The BBC therefore asks the Court to compel Plaintiff to confirm a date for his deposition, notify the BBC of a secure location where such deposition is possible and any other logistics required to ensure Plaintiff’s safety, and sit for the deposition, as the core rules of discovery require.”

The BBC’s lawyers highlighted the imbalance between the parties’ participation in discovery. “Nearly eight months into discovery, after seven depositions of BBC witnesses, and with only two months of discovery remaining, the BBC still has not been able to depose, and does not even have a schedule to depose, the most central figure in this case: Plaintiff himself,” the motion says.

Magistrate judge Enjoliqué Aytch Lett has scheduled a discovery hearing for October 22 that is likely to touch on the deposition issue.

Trump, who has a long history of legal action against media companies, filed the lawsuit against the BBC in December 2025 in Florida, accusing the broadcaster of violating the state’s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The complaint concerned an edit of a Panorama documentary that combined comments he made during a rally on January 6, 2021. The BBC has apologized for the error.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team framed the case in starker terms: “The formerly respected and now disgraced BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech in a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 Presidential Election. The BBC has a long pattern of deceiving its audience in coverage of President Trump, all in service of its own leftist political agenda. President Trump’s powerhouse lawsuit is holding the BBC accountable for its defamation and reckless election interference just as he has held other fake news mainstream media responsible for their wrongdoing.”