Judge orders Trump to give sworn deposition by 11 December in BBC defamation case

The order

A US magistrate judge in Miami, Enjoliqué Lett, has ordered President Donald Trump to answer questions under oath in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC. The order, issued on Thursday, 22 October, sets 11 December 2026 as the deadline for a deposition, a pre-trial session in which a party answers questions under oath outside the courtroom. If Trump does not appear by that date, he faces sanctions, including dismissal of the lawsuit, unless the judge extends the discovery period. Discovery, the phase in which both sides must hand over evidence and documents, is scheduled to end on 18 December.

Why the deposition was cancelled

Trump had agreed to a deposition on 16 October but cancelled it, citing 'matters of national importance'. On that day he attended a midterm rally in Dalton, Georgia, and a fundraiser at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. The BBC's lawyer, Charles Tobin, told the court that Trump had instead been 'participating in party politics'.

No plaintiff is above the law.

In a court filing on Wednesday, 21 October, Trump's lawyers said he was not seeking to avoid the deposition and proposed that he testify between 11 and 22 January 2027. The BBC says Trump is trying to delay his appearance until January 2027, and Tobin argued that fewer than two months remained in the discovery period.

The lawsuit behind the dispute

Trump filed the suit in Florida in December 2025, accusing the BBC of defamation and deceptive trade practices, and seeks $5bn on each count plus costs and punitive damages. The case centres on the Panorama documentary 'Trump: A Second Chance', which aired a week before the 2024 presidential election. According to Trump's lawyers, the program spliced together passages from a speech he gave before the storming of the Capitol on 6 January 2021, even though the passages were 55 minutes apart in the speech. The BBC has apologised for the edit, acknowledging that it 'unintentionally' gave the impression of a direct call for violent action, and blamed an 'error of judgement' by the program makers. Its director general, Tim Davie, resigned, and its top news executive also stepped down. The BBC denies defaming Trump and has asked the court to dismiss the case. In July, Trump's lawyers admitted they had no evidence that the film could be viewed in the US through BritBox, the BBC website, BBC select or US broadcasters, and Trump later agreed to drop claims against BBC Studios, which the BBC says did not take part in making the film.

Jack Smith and the timeline

Lawyers for both sides also argued on Thursday over whether former special counsel Jack Smith should be deposed. The BBC subpoenaed Smith earlier in October to strengthen its defence. Trump's lawyers say Smith, who is not a party to the case, 'lacks any personal knowledge' of the issues, and argue his testimony would duplicate a lengthy public report on 6 January along with his many hours of testimony. The BBC replied that few sources knew more about the events of 6 January. The sequence of key dates in the dispute is shown here.

The 11 December deadline and the 18 December close of discovery both fall before the January window that Trump's lawyers proposed, which the BBC says would delay the deposition.