Quick recap of how we got here. Trump was scheduled to be deposed on October 16 until his lawyers told the BBC he was unavailable \u201cdue to other matters of national importance.\u201d The BBC then helpfully told the court what those matters were: a campaign rally in Georgia and a Republican National Committee event at Mar-a-Lago<\/a>. Trump\u2019s team offered to fit the deposition in sometime in January, which happened to be after discovery closes.<\/p>\n At the hearing, Trump lawyer Alejandro Brito argued that the president\u2019s responsibilities go beyond what appears on his public calendar. Which, sure. But BBC counsel Charles Tobin noted his team has been trying to get the president on the record since July, and the broadcaster\u2019s motion to compel spelled out what\u2019s at stake:<\/p>\n There is hardly a more crucial and relevant piece of discovery in a defamation lawsuit than the deposition of the Plaintiff. For that reason, a plaintiff\u2019s unwillingness to sit for a deposition can be perilous to his claim.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cPerilous\u201d is a very polite way of saying \u201cyou sued us, now sit down under oath.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s legal team did not address the deposition order in its response. Instead, a spokesman said the \u201cpowerhouse 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Powerhouse lawsuits, it turns out, still require the plaintiff to show up.<\/p>\n There is one way out. Lett\u2019s deadline holds unless the district judge extends discovery, and the BBC has said it would accept a later deposition date if the trial date moves too. Trump\u2019s media trollsuit playbook<\/a> has never gotten through discovery, so the question from earlier this week still stands. It isn\u2019t whether Trump will sit for seven hours of videotaped questions from the BBC\u2019s lawyers, but whether his $10 billion lawsuit will still be around on December 11 to make him.<\/p>\n Earlier: <\/strong>Trump Too Busy For A Deposition, Not Too Busy For A Campaign Rally<\/a> Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of\u00a0The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of\u00a0Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email\u00a0her<\/a>\u00a0with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Trump\u2019s Very Busy Schedule Just Got A Court-Ordered Opening<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n It turns out \u201cmatters of national importance\u201d only goes so far with a federal judge.<\/p>\n On Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqu\u00e9 Lett ordered Donald Trump<\/a> to sit for a deposition in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC by December 11. If he doesn\u2019t, he faces sanctions up to and including dismissal of a lawsuit that, it bears repeating, he chose to file.<\/p>\n Quick recap of how we got here. Trump was scheduled to be deposed on October 16 until his lawyers told the BBC he was unavailable \u201cdue to other matters of national importance.\u201d The BBC then helpfully told the court what those matters were: a campaign rally in Georgia and a Republican National Committee event at Mar-a-Lago<\/a>. Trump\u2019s team offered to fit the deposition in sometime in January, which happened to be after discovery closes.<\/p>\n At the hearing, Trump lawyer Alejandro Brito argued that the president\u2019s responsibilities go beyond what appears on his public calendar. Which, sure. But BBC counsel Charles Tobin noted his team has been trying to get the president on the record since July, and the broadcaster\u2019s motion to compel spelled out what\u2019s at stake:<\/p>\n There is hardly a more crucial and relevant piece of discovery in a defamation lawsuit than the deposition of the Plaintiff. For that reason, a plaintiff\u2019s unwillingness to sit for a deposition can be perilous to his claim.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cPerilous\u201d is a very polite way of saying \u201cyou sued us, now sit down under oath.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s legal team did not address the deposition order in its response. Instead, a spokesman said the \u201cpowerhouse 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Powerhouse lawsuits, it turns out, still require the plaintiff to show up.<\/p>\n There is one way out. Lett\u2019s deadline holds unless the district judge extends discovery, and the BBC has said it would accept a later deposition date if the trial date moves too. Trump\u2019s media trollsuit playbook<\/a> has never gotten through discovery, so the question from earlier this week still stands. It isn\u2019t whether Trump will sit for seven hours of videotaped questions from the BBC\u2019s lawyers, but whether his $10 billion lawsuit will still be around on December 11 to make him.<\/p>\n Earlier: <\/strong>Trump Too Busy For A Deposition, Not Too Busy For A Campaign Rally<\/a> It turns out \u201cmatters of national importance\u201d only goes so far with a federal judge. On Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqu\u00e9 Lett ordered Donald Trump to sit for a deposition in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC by December 11. If he doesn\u2019t, he faces sanctions up to and including dismissal of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":165845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Trump Bit Off More Than He Could Chew Suing BBC, So DOJ Will Chew It For Him<\/a>
BBC Tells Trump To Sod Off \u2026 Politely<\/a><\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/06\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/Trump-Grimace-scaled-1-300x200.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
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Trump Bit Off More Than He Could Chew Suing BBC, So DOJ Will Chew It For Him<\/a>
BBC Tells Trump To Sod Off \u2026 Politely<\/a><\/p>\n
\nKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of\u00a0The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of\u00a0Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email\u00a0her<\/a>\u00a0with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky\u00a0@Kathryn1<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"