LAYING DOWN THE GAVEL

Trump Suffers Stinging Defeat in $10B Lawsuit He Filed Himself

A federal judge has ordered Donald Trump to sit for the deposition he had been dodging in the defamation suit he filed against the BBC.

A federal judge has ordered President Donald Trump to sit for a deposition he desperately tried to avoid in the $10 billion lawsuit he brought against the BBC.

The president, who has notoriously tried to avoid being deposed in past lawsuits, will need to sit for a deposition by December 11 or face sanctions. U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett also warned Trump’s lawyers that the entire suit could be thrown out if he does not comply with court orders.

The seven-hour deposition was originally supposed to take place on October 16, but the president’s lawyers canceled it and argued that Trump did not have time for such a matter until January, citing “matter of national importance.”

The BBC attorneys pushed back, arguing that those “matters” turned out to be a political campaign event and fundraiser.

“He was participating in party politics and prioritized that over sitting for the deposition,” attorney Charles Tobin said.

In the ruling, Lett also rejected a request from Trump’s attorneys to keep video of his deposition from being taped. He instead ordered that only lawyers directly involved in the case can view the recording for now.

Trump filed his defamation lawsuit against the broadcaster last year over a documentary the BBC produced on the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection attempt, which he claimed was edited “intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively.”

The lawsuit claims the documentary aired in the U.K. in 2024 was defamatory because the broadcaster spliced together parts of his speech. The BBC combined two parts of the speech: one in which Trump encouraged his supporters to walk to the Capitol, and another from a few minutes earlier in which he said he would walk there with them.

“I’ll be there with you, we’re going to walk down, we’re going to walk down,” Trump told his supporters that day, adding, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol.”

The BBC edited the footage to show Trump saying the line: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and I’ll be there with you.”

They then played Trump’s line towards the end of his 55-minute speech in which Trump told his supporters to“fight like hell.”

“We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” Trump said as a mob of his supporters had begun their trek to the Capitol.

The BBC has apologized for the editing, but has maintained that the edits are not grounds for a lawsuit.

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Annabella RosciglioneReporter

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