A federal judge on Thursday ordered Donald Trump to sit for a deposition by December 11 in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC, which has accused the US president of stalling to avoid answering questions under oath.
Trump is suing Britain’s publicly funded broadcaster for at least $10 billion over a misleadingly edited clip of a speech. The case is one of several Trump has privately filed against the news media as part of a wider pressure campaign against coverage he dislikes.
US Magistrate Judge Enjolique Lett ordered Trump to take questions from the BBC’s lawyers under oath in a ruling from the bench at a court hearing on Thursday, according to a spokesman for Trump’s personal legal team. Trump canceled a deposition in October, citing conflicts with his presidential duties.
The Trump spokesman said the lawsuit is aimed at holding the BBC accountable for defamation and “reckless election interference.”
The BBC declined to comment. It previously admitted the edits were misleading and apologized to Trump, though it denies being liable for defamation.
Trump’s lawsuit filed in December in Florida federal court accuses the BBC of intentionally misleading viewers into thinking he directed supporters to storm the US Capitol by splicing together different parts of a January 6, 2021, speech.
In court filings, the broadcaster has accused Trump and his lawyers of dragging their feet in response to their requests for records and other information that is exchanged between parties in a process known as discovery.
The BBC is seeking financial records from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club and the web of business entities associated with him, saying the information is necessary to defend against Trump’s damages claims.
Trump’s lawyers say the requests are too broad and irrelevant to the case. They have also denied in court filings that Trump is avoiding a deposition, saying Trump’s duties and security needs must take precedence.
The edited speech appeared in a BBC “Panorama” documentary show shortly before the 2024 presidential election, which Trump won. A leaked internal BBC memo cited the edits as evidence of potential political bias, sparking a public relations crisis for the broadcaster and leading to high-level resignations.
Uma juíza federal dos Estados Unidos alertou que pode arquivar o processo do presidente Donald Trump de US$ 10 bilhões contra a BBC, caso ele não se empenhe mais em fornecer as informações às quais o veículo de imprensa tem direito no âmbito do processo — o que inclui prestar depoimento.
“Participar da fase de produção de provas é algo trabalhoso, mas é um ônus que assumimos, especialmente quando decidimos abrir um processo judicial”, afirmou a juíza Enjoliqué Aytch Lett aos advogados particulares de Trump durante uma audiência nesta quinta-feira (22).
Na ocasião, ela também acatou uma intimação da BBC para a obtenção de registros de integrantes do clube Mar-a-Lago.
Lett demonstrou ceticismo quanto ao fato de Trump e sua equipe terem realizado um trabalho adequado na busca por documentos internos relacionados ao caso.
“Tendo a concordar com o réu que é difícil acreditar que tenha sido feita uma busca minuciosa para determinar se todas as solicitações foram atendidas”, disse ela.
A magistrada também determinou que Trump preste depoimento até 11 de dezembro; no entanto, tanto ela quanto as partes envolvidas mencionaram a possibilidade de que essa data seja adiada.
Por que Trump processou a BBC?
Trump abriu o processo contra a BBC em dezembro de 2025. Ele alega ter sido difamado pela empresa em um documentário sobre seu retorno à política, exibido antes da eleição de 2024.
A acusação se baseia na forma como a produção combinou dois trechos de um discurso proferido por ele em 6 de janeiro de 2021, em frente à Casa Branca, pouco antes de seus apoiadores atacarem o Capitólio dos EUA.
O documentário uniu um trecho de suas declarações, no qual ele orientou seus apoiadores a “caminharem até o Capitólio”, a uma parte posterior, na qual ele disse aos manifestantes que “lutamos como loucos”.
Contudo, a corte ressaltou, na ocasião, que não estava dando à empresa de mídia carta branca para “reabrir a discussão” sobre os eventos de 6 de janeiro.
Ao todo, a BBC emitiu pelo menos 47 intimações a autoridades governamentais — entre pessoas que ainda estão e outras que já deixaram os cargos — e a assessores particulares do círculo de Trump que tiveram conhecimento de seus esforços para anular a eleição.
Entre eles, Jared Kushner e Ivanka Trump, o ex-procurador-geral Bill Barr e o ex-advogado da Casa Branca Pat Cipollone.
Age-related macular degeneration has also left actor, 91, unable to read or recognise faces any more
Judi Dench has said she can no longer perform on stage or in films because of her deteriorating eyesight, more than a decade after revealing she had been diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration.
“I can’t be on stage. I can’t do a play any more. I can’t do a film any more. I can’t read any more,” the 91-year-old actor told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday.
Fears over lack of scrutiny for key sectors as health editor position also to go in cuts aimed at saving £5.5m
The BBC will no longer have a dedicated education editor as part of a cost-cutting drive in which 100 jobs are to go across BBC News under a plan that school leaders described as “deeply regrettable”.
BBC staff have been told that the roles of education editor and social affairs editor are to be combined into a single position as part of a round of changes that will save £5.5m. However, prominent unions and campaigners are saying the reform will dilute scrutiny of two specialisms that are too important to go without a dedicated BBC role.
Television channels BBC Three and BBC Scotland are to close and the Radio 4 Extra radio station will be scrapped, as part of the corporation’s drive to cut £500m in costs.
Both TV channels are to move online as executives try to plug a funding crisis and adapt the broadcaster’s output for audiences that increasingly watch content on demand. All three outlets will close in the spring.
In the UK, the BBC has been taking in public employees from government departments, and letting them work on news content, specifically “fact-checking” and drafting material for BBC News and its “fact-checking” arm, BBC Verify.
The secondments came from the Government Statistical Service, and took place over the past eight years, with 39 civil servants spending three or six months at the BBC, while their salaries were still paid by their own departments.
The Government Statistical Service is now advertising more of these secondments for 2027.
This was first reported by The Telegraphon October 17.
Meanwhile, the BBC is the same public service broadcaster that the government wants to give more money by introducing a “YouTube tax” – a plan to extend the license fee to streaming services.
And the same BBC is the one the government wants to push up people’s feeds on YouTube and other platforms, by making those platforms give it prominence in their algorithms. A green paper, “Watch this space: a new strategic direction for UK media,” is proposing this.
In the past, Reclaim The Net has reported about this plan, and how the US government said that this would mean “mandating that platforms algorithmically amplify government-preferred media.”
So, to sum it up: the government wants people to fund the BBC, wants the algorithm to favor the BBC, and has its own staff inside the BBC writing the fact-checks.
The subjects they worked on were “small boat” crossings of migrants, Covid, crime, migration, and life expectancy. The work of these civil servants, whose salaries were still paid by their respective government departments, was published under the bylines “BBC News” and “BBC Verify.”
This is how some of the secondees described their work on the Government Statistical Service blog.
One from the Home Office said she worked as “BBC Verify’s consultant statistician, fact-checking claims in heated election debates, ‘filing copy’ on interesting stories, and advising journalists.”
She also worked on “small boat arrivals and visa applications” and did “quality assurance on copies and charts before they were published to the online live page.”
Another from the Department for Business and Trade said, “One of my first tasks was drafting ‘copy'” on annual population statistics, “This was because they related to migration, which was always a topic of interest.” And: “My lines were then quickly pulled into a full article on the main site.”
That post, however, “was taken down after The Telegraph contacted the BBC” – and the BBC “has since insisted that those on secondment do not write copy.”
But the civil servant had just said that he did.
This secondee also worked on “fact-checking claims about crime rates among different nationalities that were dominating news cycles.”
Another civil servant seconded to the BBC analyzed data on “small boat migration” to see if the weather in 2022 meant fewer crossings: “In probably my proudest moment, this made it into an article on the front page and a TV piece.”
The job advert says that “Your salary for this professional development opportunity will continue to be paid by your parent department.”
The person they are looking for should have “the ability to influence decision making, working with credibility and proactively with customers to share knowledge and information.” They will also “be representing their department and the Government Statistical Service.”
The BBC’s own rules, however, say that “Our audiences must be able to trust the BBC and be confident that our editorial decisions are not influenced by outside interests, political or commercial pressures, or any personal interests.”
And: “External activities of individuals working for the BBC must not undermine the public’s perception of the impartiality, integrity, independence and objectivity of the BBC.”
A spokesman for the BBC said that “All BBC journalism and editorial decisions are made by BBC journalists and editors, in line with the BBC’s editorial guidelines, so these statisticians never make editorial decisions.”
But the corporation has also said it will now amend the bylines of the articles written by the civil servants to show their true jobs – something it will do only now, after The Telegraph asked.
Opposition politicians and others have been scathing in their criticism of the scheme, with Mike Wood, shadow Cabinet Office minister, saying that the BBC “must never allow a political agenda to influence BBC coverage via the back door.”
Danny Kruger, of Reform UK, was even more direct: “This is scandalous and looks dangerously as though the BBC has breached its own rules on impartiality.”
Oxford professor Carl Heneghan said, “If you have people writing for you with competing interests, it won’t be impartial. It is the government organisation you will be partial to. You will want to toe the line.”
The arrangement is so absurd that people would probably laugh at it if they heard it was happening in North Korea.
But it’s happening in the UK, and it’s not funny. The “journalists” in question were never identified as government employees to the readers, and the change of heart in that regard comes only now, after a newspaper investigated and reported about it.
The BBC has suspended a placement scheme for civil servants amid an outcry over impartiality after it was revealed that Whitehall staff were tasked with fact-checking contentious issues such as immigration and Covid.
The BBC has been accused of using its Bitesize website to push open borders, Net Zero and woke ideology on children as young as 11, teaching them that more immigration is great and anyone who disagrees is likely a bigot.
President Trump’s primary legal fund is more than $1.9 million in debt, according to its latest filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Save America PAC, which Trump formed after he lost the 2020 presidential election, spent more than $5.4 million in the third quarter and had spent more than $14 million from the start…
The BBC is making a documentary series about the influence and legacy of J.K. Rowling without any input from the author which brands her a "polarising figure".
A emissora britânica vai continuar a informar em pashtun, dari e inglês através de ondas curtas, satélite e internet. Afirmam ainda que estão a trabalhar com as autoridades para lidar com a situação.
Further exclusive extracts from Chris Morrison's new book on the invented 'climate crisis' are published today on the Daily Sceptic. Read about the role of the BBC and Met Office in driving the hysteria.
The BBC pays white staff less on average than their ethnic minority colleagues in every pay band bar one, stoking concerns about the impact of the corporation's diversity drive.
Comedy clubs are begging for taxpayer bailouts, the BBC is censoring classic sketches and Muslim activists are trying to ban John Cleese. British comedy is becoming less funny by the day, says Steven Tucker.
The BBC has finally accepted that it should not have predetermined Nigel Farage's guilt by referring to his "failure" to declare donations. But, preposterously, it still claimed there was "no intent of bias".
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