Donald Trump has been ordered by a US judge to cooperate with the discovery process mandated for his lawsuit against the BBC and to sit for a deposition by 11 December – or else he could be subject to sanctions, including the possible dismissal of the $10bn lawsuit.
The lawsuit stems from a Panorama documentary aired by the BBC that spliced together comments made by Trump during a rally on 6 January 2021, before the US Capitol riot. While the broadcast was not readily available to view in Florida, Trump's team has argued that he was personally damaged by the broadcast under Florida's Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
During a lengthy hearing dealing with a variety of discovery issues, federal magistrate judge Enjoliqué Lett on Thursday also rejected a request by Trump's legal team to prevent the seven-hour-long deposition from being videotaped, though it will only be accessible to attorneys in the case.
Lett agreed with contentions from the BBC's lawyers that Trump's team had not been sufficiently forthcoming in handing over internal documents relevant to the case ahead of an 18 December deadline for discovery.
"We still have a completely lopsided [situation] here on discovery. They have produced absolutely nothing of any substance," attorney Charles Tobin, on behalf of the BBC, argued in a Miami courtroom.
The documents that Trump's team have turned over have primarily been either pulled from the internet or provided by the BBC itself.
"It strains credulity that a thorough search has been done in order to determine that all of these requests have been responded to," Lett told Alejandro Brito, Trump's Florida-based attorney. "The court is not satisfied that anyone is doing a thorough job."
The judge gave the plaintiffs 30 days to produce the relevant documents. While she acknowledged that the discovery process can be "burdensome" on both parties, she said that "failure to do so could result in sanctions, including possible dismissal of the suit for failure to prosecute the case and engage in meaningful discovery process".
Of the Trump team's obligation to adequately participate in the discovery process, the judge said: "This is the last opportunity to do so."
After discussing the discovery process, the judge turned to the BBC's request to compel the president's team to agree for a deposition, after a previously scheduled date – 16 October – was cancelled for what Trump's counsel said were "other matters of national importance". While the BBC noted that Trump was actually campaigning in Georgia on that day, leading Tobin to conclude that the plaintiff's team had transmitted "fake news", Brito said the president was "involved in a host of things" on a daily basis that the BBC's legal team "has no idea" about.
While Lett said she was obligated to adhere to the discovery schedule mandated in the case, that timeline could be extended by district court judge Jeffrey T Kuntz. Tobin, representing the BBC, said his side was willing to push back the timeline for Trump's deposition if Kuntz adjusted the discovery schedule.
Lett once again threatened sanctions – including dismissal – if Trump's team did not comply with her deposition order.
"The lesson for the day is that no plaintiff is above the law, and no plaintiff is above the orders of the court," Tobin said.
In a filing on Wednesday, Trump's team said he would be willing to sit for a deposition during the second or third week of January.
During the hearing, Lett also allowed the BBC's subpoena to Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Florida club, to go ahead, despite protests from Trump's attorney that the business was separate from the president.
Brito, Trump's attorney, contended that the president does not run the club. "The president's occupation is the president of the United States," he said. "It has nothing to do with Mar-a-Lago as far as his occupation."
Tobin, representing the BBC, vehemently disagreed. "To say that Mar-a-Lago is not tied to this president or his reputation ignores the fact that he hosts [Ukrainian president] Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he hosts the president of Ireland, [Russian president] Vladimir Putin – he uses Mar-a-Lago as a location to publicize his reputation as a symbol of his personal power, so it is inextricably intertwined. His business successes are a measure of his reputation."
In issuing the ruling, the judge agreed that the club "falls within the scope of discoverability".
"I think it is intertwined with his profession and therefore any harm that may be alleged under his professional trade and occupation would be reflected with how he conducts business with Mar-a-Lago, at least for discovery purposes," she added.