Judge Orders Donald Trump to Testify Under Oath in $10 Billion BBC Defamation Case

President Donald Trump must sit for a deposition in his defamation lawsuit filed against the BBC, the judge overseeing the case ruled.

“Engaging in discovery is burdensome, but is a burden we undertake, especially if we file a lawsuit,” Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Aytch Lett, , said at a hearing in the case Thursday, as reported by CNN.

Trump filed the lawsuit in Florida in December 2025, alleging defamation and trade practices violations after BBC program “Panorama” condensed his Jan. 6, 2021, speech to make it seem like he said: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.” He is seeking $10 billion in damages.

The BBC subsequently apologized for the error, saying the broadcast gave “the mistaken impression that President Trump made a direct call for violent action.”

A spokesman for Trump’s legal team said in a statement: “The formerly respected and now disgraced BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech in a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 Presidential Election. The BBC has a long pattern of deceiving its audience in coverage of President Trump, all in service of its own leftist political agenda. 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.”

In a filing on Wednesday, Trump’s lawyers said that the president could appear for the interview between Jan. 11 and 22, 2027, and claimed that the BBC was “wrong to claim that President Trump is avoiding his deposition in this action.”