Judge orders Trump to sit for deposition by Dec. 11 in his $10 billion BBC defamation suit

A federal judge in Miami on Thursday ordered President Donald Trump to sit for a deposition by Dec. 11 in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC, CNBC reported, citing multiple news outlets. The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times also ran the story.

What the judge said

U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett also warned Trump's lawyers that the complaint could be dismissed if he does not comply with orders to give the BBC's lawyers relevant records, according to Politico, as relayed by CNBC. Trump's attorneys had asked for the deposition to take place between Jan. 11 and Jan. 22.

The two sides' arguments

BBC attorney Charles Tobin told the court that Trump had agreed to a deposition on Oct. 16 and then canceled it for a "matter of national importance," The Associated Press reported. Tobin said Trump was in fact campaigning in Georgia that day. In a recent filing, the BBC said that "with just two months of discovery remaining," Trump had not tried to meet his discovery obligations, and that his side had sent back documents the BBC itself had already produced. The BBC told CNBC it had nothing to add. CNBC's account did not include a response from Trump's lawyers at the hearing.

Background

Trump sued on Dec. 15 over a Panorama documentary, "Trump: A Second Chance," which aired a week before the 2024 election. The complaint says the program was edited to make it appear he explicitly urged supporters to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The BBC's chair apologized for the edit before the suit was filed, and the broadcaster said on Nov. 13, 2025 that it regretted the edit but saw no basis for a defamation claim. It also promised not to air the documentary again.

What it means

Discovery is the fact-gathering phase where each side must produce documents and answer questions under oath. Courts can dismiss a plaintiff's claims over repeated discovery failures, which is the outcome the judge flagged. For now no ruling on the merits has been made. The next marker is the Dec. 11 deposition deadline.

Sources: CNBC, which cites Politico and The Associated Press; WSJ and Financial Times reports on the ruling. Photo: Les Hull / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).