President Donald Trump has agreed to sit for a deposition in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC in January, but is asking a federal court to prohibit video recording of his testimony, according to a new court filing. In a response filed Wednesday, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Trump's lawyers said he would make himself available for questioning from January 11 to January 22.
"President Trump is not avoiding his deposition in this action," Trump's legal team said in the filing, obtained by Newsweek. It asked the court to set the deposition at a site designated in consultation with the U.S. Secret Service, with attendance limited to Trump, attorneys, a court reporter and necessary Secret Service personnel.
The filing, which opposes the BBC's request for a court hearing to compel Trump's deposition, comes after U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué A. Lett warned that failure to comply with the court's discovery procedures going forward could lead to sanctions.
The dispute centers on Trump's failure to appear for a deposition scheduled for October 16, a date that was postponed after his legal team cited matters of national importance. However, the BBC has pointed to Trump's appearance at a campaign rally in Dalton, Georgia, that day as evidence challenging his explanation for the postponement. Trump's lawyers argue that the president has not been avoiding testimony and that the BBC prematurely sought court intervention while the parties were still discussing replacement dates.
The BBC has argued that Trump's legal team repeatedly failed to provide a firm deposition date despite requests beginning in July. In its October filing seeking a discovery hearing, BBC attorney Charles D. Tobin said the broadcaster still had not been able to question Trump, whom it considers a central figure in the case, despite having only a limited period remaining for discovery.
"Those delays have flouted the cooperative spirit of discovery and precluded the BBC from obtaining the evidence necessary to robustly litigate its defense," Tobin wrote. According to the BBC's filing, the parties eventually agreed to October 16 after repeated follow-ups. But on September 28, Trump's counsel informed the broadcaster that the president was no longer available on that date because of matters of national importance including the conflict in Iran, unrest elsewhere in the Middle East, the war between Russia and Ukraine, and other issues affecting national security and the U.S. economy.
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