Trump ordered to give sworn testimony in BBC lawsuit

A US judge has ordered President Donald Trump to answer questions under oath by 11 December in his defamation lawsuit against the BBC over an edited Panorama broadcast, BBC News reported on 22 October. US Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett made the deadline conditional on whether the court extends the discovery period.

The order follows the cancellation of a deposition scheduled for 16 October. Trump's legal team cited “matters of national importance”; that day, he attended a midterm election campaign rally in Dalton, Georgia, and a fundraiser at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida.

Charles Tobin, a lawyer for the broadcaster, told the court that its lawyers had still been unable to question Trump with two months remaining in discovery, the pretrial evidence-gathering process. Attorneys had asked Lett last week to compel his attendance after the scheduled deposition did not take place.

Trump's lawyers proposed January dates

In a separate filing on Wednesday, Trump's lawyers said he could be available for questioning between 11 and 22 January 2027. They rejected the broadcaster's contention that he was avoiding a deposition.

The court's December deadline comes earlier than that proposed window. A deposition involves sworn questioning before trial; the scheduling order does not resolve the merits of Trump's defamation claim.

The disputed edit and the broadcaster's defence

The lawsuit, filed in Florida, concerns a Panorama episode that joined two separate portions of Trump's 6 January 2021 speech before the US Capitol riot. Trump alleges that the broadcaster deliberately and deceptively altered his remarks.

The broadcaster apologised for the edit and acknowledged that it wrongly made his remarks appear to be a direct call for violence. It has nevertheless sought dismissal of the lawsuit, arguing that the programme did not satisfy the legal requirements for defamation and was unavailable in the United States.

In July, Trump's lawyers conceded that they had no evidence supporting their original claim that the documentary was accessible in the US through the broadcaster's BritBox subscription service. They also acknowledged having no evidence of availability through its website, BBC Select or US broadcasters.

Trump subsequently agreed to drop his claim against BBC Studios, the broadcaster's commercial arm, after it argued that it had not been involved in making or producing the documentary.