President Donald Trump gestures during a reception for Republican members of Congress in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, July 22, 2025, in Washington (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson).
Frustrated attorneys with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) told a federal judge that President Donald Trump must be forced to set a deposition date in his own defamation lawsuit "before discovery closes."
The five-page motion relating to an Oct. 22 discovery hearing was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Kuntz's courtroom. The filing stated that the president "chose to file this lawsuit and, in doing so, he accepted the obligations of civil litigation."
And yet, since July, when the BBC "first requested dates" for Trump's deposition, nothing has changed.
"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," court documents added.
The BBC told the judge, a Trump appointee, that the president's participation in the case — or lack thereof — resembled what happened in his breach of contract lawsuit against his niece Mary Trump in New York, which ultimately settled.
"This is not the first time a litigant has been forced to seek a court's help to secure Plaintiff's deposition. Just last year, in a lawsuit Plaintiff brought against his niece, defendant requested relief when she was 'unable to secure President Trump's agreement—despite at least five requests in the past 10 weeks—to appear for a deposition on any specific date or dates before the close of discovery,'" the motion said.
The BBC's attorneys suggested that Trump's "unwillingness" to answer questions under oath about his $10 billion Florida defamation lawsuit could lead to sanctions and dismissal if the president won't provide "discoverable information" about his Jan. 6 intentions:
There is hardly a more crucial and relevant piece of discovery in a defamation lawsuit than the deposition of the Plaintiff. For that reason, a plaintiff's unwillingness to sit for a deposition can be perilous to his claim. See Samadi v. Bank of Am., N.A. (sanctions appropriate where plaintiff "refused to make himself available for a deposition within the time for discovery" and sought to condition his appearance on defendant's document productions); Navarro v. Cohan (plaintiff's failure to appear for deposition, after his continued failure to respond to defense motions, warranted dismissal).That is especially the case here, where "the contours of [Plaintiff's] message" in his speech on January 6, including "whether [he] gave it intentionally or otherwise," are key issues, and where Plaintiff identified himself as the only non-BBC affiliated individual "likely to have any discoverable information that is relevant to the disputed facts in this action."
While Trump claimed that the BBC's out-of-order edit of certain portions of his Jan. 6 speech gave the "mistaken impression that [he] had made a direct call for violent action" that day and defamed him, the BBC has countered that it has been rebuffed at every turn from testing those claims in its defense.
Believing the parties had "agreed to set the deposition for October 16, 2026," the BBC said it checked in after "nearly six weeks of silence" from Trump's team, from July 30 to Sept. 16.
"Plaintiff's counsel indicated that he was 'inquiring'" about whether the date was still on "and would 'get back' to the BBC with a response. He did not," the motion said. "[O]n the afternoon of Friday, October 9, Plaintiff's counsel informed the BBC's counsel that Plaintiff has no availability whatsoever for a deposition before discovery is set to close on December 18, 2026."
That can't be allowed to happen, the motion said.
"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 BBC said.