President Donald Trump’s legal team lashed out at the BBC on Tuesday after the broadcaster asked a federal judge to force him to sit for a deposition his lawyers canceled in his own $10 billion lawsuit.
The combative statement accused the BBC of election interference but did not address the deposition-scheduling dispute, Guardian reporter Jeremy Barr noted on X. It was posted after Trump's legal team helped him avoid an upcoming deposition with lawyers representing the BBC, scheduled for Friday.
"The formerly respected and now disgraced BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech in a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 Presidential Election,” a spokesperson said, according to a new report in The Guardian.
The Trump team accused the BBC of pursuing a “leftist political agenda” and hyped “President Trump’s powerhouse lawsuit.”
According to Barr’s reporting, the BBC said Trump’s lawyers canceled an agreed-upon Oct. 16 deposition, citing “other matters of national importance.”
His team later suggested January dates, past the deadline to complete discovery, the broadcaster said.
“Plaintiff chose to file this lawsuit and, in doing so, he accepted the obligations of civil litigation,” BBC lawyers wrote.
The lawsuit concerns a Panorama documentary that spliced together remarks from Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, speech. The BBC has apologized for the editing error, according to reporting in The Guardian.
But Trump’s lawyers still insisted the case was “holding the BBC accountable for its defamation and reckless election interference.”
A discovery hearing is scheduled for Oct. 22.
Statement from Trump's legal team — which does not address the deposition scheduling issue: "The formerly respected and now disgraced BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech in a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 Presidential Election. The BBC has a long pattern of deceiving its audience in coverage of President Trump, all in service of its own leftist political agenda. President Trump’s powerhouse lawsuit is holding the BBC accountable for its defamation and reckless election interference just as he has held other fake news mainstream media responsible for their wrongdoing.” https://t.co/doj0xrdbHc
— Jeremy Barr (@jeremymbarr) October 13, 2026