Judge orders President Trump to sit for deposition in defamation lawsuit against BBC

(NBC, KYMA) - A federal judge in Florida ordered President Donald Trump Thursday to sit for a deposition in his defamation lawsuit against the BBC by December 11, or face the possibility of having his $10 billion lawsuit dismissed.

President Trump was supposed to sit for a deposition in the matter last Friday, but it was cancelled for a "matter of national importance."

BBC attorney Charles Tobin told U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett that it was "fake news," saying the matter in question turned out to be a political rally and a fundraiser.

Trump's attorneys had proposed postponing his deposition until late January, but the BBC's team said that was too late.

Discovery in the case is supposed to be completed by December 18, a time frame set by Judge Jeffrey Kuntz, who is overseeing the case.

Trump sued the BBC claiming it aired a "false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction" of him in a documentary that spliced together comments from his speech at the Ellipse ahead of the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol in 2021.

He claims that caused billions of dollars of damage to his businesses, and the documentary did not air in the United States.

Judge Lett will rule later on whether former special prosecutor Jack Smith will be allowed to testify in the case.