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President Donald Trump was threatened by a judge with sanctions if he doesn’t sit for a deposition in the $10 billion defamation lawsuit he filed against the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC late last year for its 2024 “Panorama” documentary that distorted his remarks to supporters on Jan. 6, 2021. Critics claim the documentary was misleading because it omitted Trump’s call for supporters to protest peacefully, splicing together separate portions of a lengthy address to give a wrong impression.
But Trump has been too busy to sit for a deposition, and the BBC said the president’s legal team insisted “has no availability whatsoever” before the end of the discovery period on Dec. 18 because he is busy dealing with “matters of national importance.”
TRUMP FILES ‘POWERHOUSE’ $10 BILLION LAWSUIT AGAINST BBC OVER DOCUMENTARY EDITING HIS JAN 6 REMARKS
President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against the BBC in December. (Patrick van Katwijk/Getty Images)
As a result, the BBC filed a motion to compel Trump’s deposition. The BBC has said it understands that Trump’s deposition requires “additional planning,” and he “accepted the obligations of civil litigation” when he chose to file the lawsuit.
“The Court has admonished Plaintiff for his lack of participation to no avail. Going forward, the Court expects strict compliance with its 29 Order, the failure of which will lead to sanctions,” Magistrate Judge Enjolique A. Lett said on Friday, scheduling a hearing by Oct. 22.
When asked for comment, Trump’s legal team blasted the British broadcaster.
“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,” a spokesperson for his legal team told Digital.
LEGAL ANALYST PREDICTS TRUMP COULD WIN ‘CONSIDERABLE’ DAMAGES FROM BBC DOCUMENTARY LAWSUIT
President Trump has been in a legal battle with the BBC since December 2025. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The BBC declined a request for comment.
Trump filed the lawsuit against the BBC in December in a personal capacity for both defamation and for a violation of Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act for $5 billion apiece, seeking $10 billion total.
The documentary omitted Trump urging his supporters to protest “peacefully” and instead spliced two separate comments made nearly an hour apart, making him appear he was calling for violence.
“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol. And I’ll be there with you. And we fight — we fight like hell,” the documentary showed Trump saying.
In reality, Trump said, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol. And we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them, because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”
It wasn’t until 54 minutes later that Trump called on his supporters to “fight like hell” for election integrity.
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President Donald Trump has been too busy with “matters of national importance” to sit for a deposition. (Aaron Schwartz/Sipa/Bloomberg)
The New York Times referred to the ordeal as “one of the worst crises in its 103-year history” of the BBC. The controversy led to the resignations of BBC News CEO Deborah Turness and BBC director-general Tim Davie.
The BBC previously issued an apology for the erroneous edit and said it had pulled the program from its platforms. Despite the apology, the broadcaster has insisted the mistake is not enough for a defamation claim.
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Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfson contributed to this report.
