Trump Ordered to Sit for the BBC Deposition by Dec. 11 — or Risk Dismissal of His Own $10B Suit
UPDATE (Oct. 22, 2026): the sanctions warning became an order. After the president skipped his own deposition — cancelled Oct. 16 citing "matters of national importance," while campaigning in Georgia that day — a Miami federal magistrate has put a hard deadline on the discovery he is fighting to obtain. Per the BBC: "US Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett said Trump must sit for the deposition by 11 December or face sanctions - the most extreme of which could be the dismissal of the lawsuit - unless the discovery period is extended."
The courtroom record of why is blunt. BBC lawyer Charles Tobin told the court "that with two months left in the discovery period, Trump had still not completed a deposition," and said Trump "was campaigning in Georgia that day and had 'prioritised that' over answering the questions." Trump's lawyers countered in a Wednesday filing that he could appear between 11 and 22 January and that the BBC was "wrong to claim that President Trump is avoiding his deposition in this action."
What it means: the mirror image of the East Potomac defiance (East Potomac: Trump Orders Work "IMMEDIATELY," Calls Reyes a "Crazed Lunatic" — and the Judge Who Withdrew Her Rule 11 Demand Keeps the TRO Through Oct. 26) — the president's own litigation is now the vehicle enforcing discovery discipline against him, with the most extreme sanction being dismissal of his $10B suit over the Panorama edit. The suit's merits are already wobbling: his lawyers conceded in July they had no evidence the documentary was available in the US, and the BBC has moved to dismiss.