Man Suing BBC for $10 Billion Ordered to Attend His Own Lawsuit

Most people who sue for $10 billion clear their calendar. President Donald Trump has cleared his calendar of the lawsuit.

On Thursday in Miami, U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett ordered the president to sit for a deposition in his own defamation case against the BBC by December 11, or face sanctions that could include having the case dismissed. It is the first time a plaintiff has had to be subpoenaed by his own grievance. Somewhere, a man who sued his landlord is attending every hearing in a suit and tie, wondering what he is doing wrong.

The BBC's lawyer, Charles Tobin, put the problem with the calm of a man who bills by the hour: with two months left in discovery, "we still haven't been able to depose the plaintiff." The plaintiff. Not a reluctant witness, not a whistleblower in a safe house. The guy who started it. It is like throwing a surprise party and then hiding from the guests.

Trump had been scheduled to testify on October 16. He canceled, citing a "matter of national importance." According to Tobin, that matter was a political rally and a fundraiser in Georgia, which Tobin, in a courtroom, under no oath of irony whatsoever, called "fake news." The BBC has now been reduced to fact-checking a schedule. That is the most British revenge imaginable: no shouting, just a calendar and a raised eyebrow.

"He was participating in party politics and supported his candidates in the election, and he prioritized that over his obligations in this proceeding," Tobin said. Translation: the man suing for reputational damage was busy at a rally, repairing his reputation for free.

Trump's lawyers proposed late January instead. Discovery closes December 18. Late January is not a scheduling request. It is a sequel.

The suit concerns a Panorama documentary that spliced together two parts of a speech Trump gave nearly an hour apart on January 6, 2021. The BBC has admitted the edit was misleading. Its punishment, apparently, is to keep asking the man to come and talk for seven hours. The broadcaster that once edited him too tightly now cannot get him into the room at any length.

Judge Lett also ruled the seven-hour deposition may be videotaped, over the objection of Trump attorney Alejandro Brito, though only the lawyers will see it. Seven hours of footage, sealed from the public, featuring the most-filmed man on Earth. It is the only Trump content that will never be clipped, and still both sides are worried about the edit.

There is a lesson here about the modern defamation suit. You file it on television. You discuss it at rallies. You estimate damages the way other people estimate the weight of a pumpkin at the county fair. The only part you are not expected to do is the part with the oath.

The deadline now stands. December 11, or the $10 billion case may be dismissed for the oldest legal reason in the book: nobody showed up. The BBC spent decades accused of bias. It may now win on attendance.

He wanted the full speech played. The court would settle for seven hours of the full answer.