President Donald Trump speaks during a dinner in the Rose Garden of the White House, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, in Washington (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).
President Donald Trump "continues to disregard his discovery obligations" in a defamation lawsuit that he filed, necessitating "judicial intervention" and a "firm order" to comply, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) said in a court filing.
It wasn't long ago that Trump's attorneys were the ones threatening to seek sanctions against the BBC for insisting upon the deposition of former White House counsel Pat Cipollone. Now, the BBC is bringing complaints about Trump's discovery "deficiencies" to a federal judge's attention, in the hopes of an intervention.
The notice for U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Kuntz included an exhibit of a Sept. 21 email from the BBC's attorney Charles Tobin to Trump attorney Alejandro Brito. In it, Tobin vented that Trump "has agreed—but so far failed—to produce" numerous documents that the defendants may use to defeat the $10 billion defamation lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds or by showing the president can't "prove that he did not foment or incite the January 6 Capitol riot."
The email warned that if Trump continued to "delay or otherwise stonewall production in contravention of his discovery obligations, the BBC will seek judicial intervention."
One week later, the BBC told the Trump-appointed jurist that the email was ignored and that the one-sided nature of discovery to date must stop.
"The BBC is complying with its obligations in discovery. Plaintiff, however, has chosen to ignore the instructions of this Court and his obligations under the Rules. With the discovery cutoff of December 18, 2026, the BBC will continue to experience extreme prejudice if Plaintiff continues to disregard his discovery obligations, as is likely unless the Court issues a firm order," the defendant said in a Friday filing. "The BBC therefore respectfully reiterates its request that the Court either set a hearing, or enter an order specifically providing that sanctions will issue to the Plaintiff if he does not immediately comply with his discovery obligations."
Most recently, Kuntz quashed the BBC's subpoena of Cassidy Hutchinson, who testified before the Jan. 6 Committee and previously served as an aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. The judge saw the subpoena as an attempt to "relitigate and discover every aspect of the events of January 6, 2021," when the case instead presents a "narrow issue."
"[T]his case is about a documentary aired by the BBC and, specifically, an allegation that the BBC 'spliced' two statements together that were actually made more than 55 minutes apart," the judge said, finding the subpoena "definitively" and "unnecessarily burdens a non-party such as Ms. Hutchinson," who also happens to be the "subject" of a Trump DOJ criminal investigation.
Trump sued the BBC over the documentary "Trump: A Second Chance" after the BBC admitted the piece "gave the mistaken impression that [he] had made a direct call for violent action" on Jan. 6 by editing "excerpts from different points" of the president's speech from the Ellipse out of sequence.