BBC asks Florida judge to compel Trump deposition in $10bn lawsuit

The BBC filed a motion on Tuesday asking a federal judge in Florida to compel Donald Trump to sit for a deposition in the president's $10bn defamation lawsuit against the British broadcaster. According to the filing, the two sides had agreed the deposition would take place on Friday, 16 October. The BBC's lawyers said they had spent months trying to get Trump's team to settle on a location for it. On 28 September, they wrote, Trump's counsel told them the president was no longer available on that date because of what they described as other matters of national importance.

Trump's lawyers said at the time that they would quickly propose a new date, but according to the BBC they did not follow up. The broadcaster's counsel said the president's team ultimately floated the second or third week of January, which falls well after the deadline for completing discovery in the case. The BBC had pledged to keep the location of any deposition confidential, and its motion asks the court to require Trump's side to confirm a date, provide a secure venue and share any logistics needed for his safety.

In the motion, the BBC argued that by choosing to file the lawsuit, Trump accepted the obligations that come with civil litigation, and that the core rules of discovery require him to appear. Magistrate judge Enjoliqué Aytch Lett has scheduled a discovery hearing for 22 October that is expected to touch on the deposition dispute. The BBC's lawyers noted that nearly eight months into discovery, after seven depositions of BBC witnesses, and with only two months of discovery left, they still have neither taken nor scheduled the deposition of the most central figure in the case.

Trump filed the lawsuit against the BBC in December 2025, accusing the network of violating Florida's Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The claim centres on a Panorama documentary that edited together comments he made during a rally on 6 January 2021. The BBC has apologized for the error.

A spokesperson for Trump's legal team said the broadcaster defamed the president by doctoring his speech and accused the BBC of a pattern of deceiving its audience in its coverage of him, describing the lawsuit as holding the network accountable. Trump has a long history of taking legal action against media companies.