The BBC is asking a federal judge in Florida to force Donald Trump to sit for a deposition as part of the president’s $10bn defamation lawsuit against the British broadcaster. According to a Tuesday filing, the BBC and Trump’s legal team had agreed for him to be deposed on Friday. The BBC’s lawyers wrote to the judge that they have spent months trying to secure a location for the deposition from Trump’s team.
On 28 September, Trump’s lawyers told the BBC’s counsel that the president “is no longer available for his deposition on October 16 due to other matters of national importance”. While Trump’s lawyers said they would follow up quickly with a replacement date, they did not, ultimately suggesting that he would be available in the second or third week of January, well after the deadline to complete the discovery portion of the case. Lawyers for the BBC had pledged to keep the location of the deposition confidential.
As such, the BBC’s lawyers are now asking the judge to require Trump’s team to schedule the deposition. Trump, who has a long history of legal action against media companies, filed a lawsuit against the BBC in December 2025, accusing the network of violating Florida’s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act over the edit of a Panorama documentary that edited together comments he made during a rally on 6 January 2021. The BBC has apologized for the error.
President Trump’s powerhouse lawsuit is holding the BBC accountable for its defamation and reckless election interference just as he has held other fake news mainstream media responsible for their wrongdoing.”
Extract — continue reading at the source.
