A federal judge has ordered President Donald Trump to sit for a deposition by December 11 in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC, warning that failure to comply could bring sanctions that include dismissal of the entire case. The ruling from U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett comes after BBC attorneys complained that Trump canceled a previously scheduled October 16 deposition, citing a “matter of national importance.” The new deadline falls just before the December 18 discovery cutoff, unless that period is extended by the court. Trump filed the lawsuit last December, accusing the British broadcaster of defaming him through a documentary that misleadingly edited clips of his January 6, 2021 speech. The BBC has apologized for the editing error that made it appear he encouraged the Capitol riot, yet the network continues to deny any defamation occurred. Two senior BBC executives resigned amid the fallout from the controversy surrounding the program.

The case centers on a BBC Panorama documentary titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” that aired shortly before the 2024 election and spliced together separate portions of the speech delivered nearly an hour apart. Critics and Trump’s legal team argue the edit created a false impression by omitting his calls for peaceful protest while combining phrases that suggested he was urging supporters to fight at the Capitol. Trump initially sought damages tied to both reputation and business impacts but later narrowed the claim to focus on reputational harm. BBC lawyers have pressed the court for months to secure the president’s testimony, noting that he remains the central figure in the lawsuit he himself filed. The judge’s order underscores the expectation of strict compliance with discovery rules, even for a sitting president, and leaves open the possibility of further delays only if the overall discovery window is lengthened. Legal observers note that missing the December 11 date without court approval could seriously jeopardize the high-stakes claim against the publicly funded broadcaster.