There's an old rule in courtrooms, and it doesn't care who you are: if you file the lawsuit, you sit for the questions.
President Donald Trump filed his in December of last year, in federal court in Florida, suing the BBC for $10 billion. The case is about a documentary called "Trump: A Second Chance," which aired in Britain shortly before the 2024 election. In one passage, the film spliced together two separate moments from the speech Trump gave on January 6, 2021 — his line about walking down to the Capitol, joined to words from much later in the same speech: "we fight like hell." Trump's suit says the edit was defamation and a deceptive trade practice, a "false, defamatory" depiction meant to make it look as though he had directly called for violence. His lawyers also point to what the film left out: in the same speech, Trump told the crowd he expected them to march "peacefully and patriotically."
The BBC has never defended the edit itself. The broadcaster acknowledged the splicing gave, in its words, "the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action," published an apology, and saw both its director general and its head of news resign over the episode. But the BBC denies that makes it liable for defamation, and its lawyers argue the case doesn't belong in a Florida courtroom at all — the documentary was made in London and never aired in the United States.
What brought the fight to a head on Thursday, in a Miami courtroom, was a date that came and went. Trump had agreed to sit for a deposition — sworn answers, under oath, to the BBC's lawyers — on October 16. His legal team canceled it, citing "matters of national importance," and offered dates in January instead. The BBC's attorney, Charles Tobin, told the judge what the president had been doing that day instead: campaigning in Georgia. "He was participating in party politics and prioritized that over sitting for the deposition," Tobin said. Trump's attorney, Alejandro Brito, pushed back hard, telling the court it "insults the intelligence of everyone in this courtroom" to suggest a rally and a fundraiser were the only things on a president's plate that day.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett landed where the old rule lands. "Engaging in discovery is burdensome," she said, "but is a burden we undertake, especially if we file a lawsuit." She ordered Trump deposed by December 11 — on video, though only the lawyers in the case may see the recording — and warned that if he doesn't sit, he faces sanctions up to and including dismissal of his own lawsuit. The one door she left open: if the presiding judge extends the evidence-gathering deadline past its current December 18 end, the deposition date can move with it.
The hearing didn't stop at the deposition. Lett also ruled the BBC can subpoena membership records from Mar-a-Lago — application numbers and fees from 2020 through 2026 — because the broadcaster wants to test Trump's claim that the documentary damaged his reputation, and argues the club's popularity is one way to measure that. Trump's side counters that he doesn't run the club and his reputation isn't tied to it. A spokesman for Trump's legal team didn't address the deadline — he called the suit a "powerhouse lawsuit" that is "holding the BBC accountable for its defamation and reckless election interference."
So the calendar now says December 11. Whether the president of the United States actually sits down in a room with the BBC's lawyers and answers questions under oath is a thing we'll all find out together — but as of Thursday, it's not his call anymore. It's the court's.
Brought to you by Team Murphy Media
If you'd like us to continue this work and keep Shop Talk Weekly subscriptions free, consider making a donation: Cash App $dj7309 · PayPal paypal.me/dj7309. Can't donate? Like, share & subscribe — that costs nothing and means everything.