A federal judge ordered President Trump to sit for a deposition in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett ordered Trump to appear by December 11 or risk the possibility of having his action dismissed.

Lawyers for the outlet argued that Trump is improperly delaying his appearance.

NBC News shared further:

He was supposed to sit for a deposition on Oct. 16 but canceled it for a “matter of national importance.”

BBC attorney Charles Tobin told the judge that matter turned out to be a political rally and a fundraiser. “He was participating in party politics and prioritized that over sitting for the deposition,” Tobin said.

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NBC News has reached out to the BBC for comment. The White House referred a request for comment to a representative for Trump’s personal legal team, who did not immediately respond.

Trump filed suit against the British news organization last year, alleging it aired a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction” of him in a documentary that spliced together comments from his speech at the Ellipse ahead of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

The BBC has acknowledged splicing comments from the speech together, but maintains Trump was not defamed and that he did not suffer any damages.

According to Axios, a filing published Wednesday said Trump could appear between January 11 and January 22, 2027.

The filing argued that Trump’s presidential duties prevent him from sitting for the deposition before then.

Axios noted:

The president claimed the edit was defamatory and demanded the BBC make amends by providing financial compensation, in addition to an apology and a retraction.

The BBC later said in a correction note that the clips “unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points in the speech, and that this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action.”

Two top leaders at BBC later resigned over the backlash.

 

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