The burlesque $10 beeeeeellion lawsuit lodged by the president against the BBC once again had an ungainly collision with reality on Thursday. The lawsuit alleges that the BBC’s Panorama defamed him by editing together two slices of the speech he gave on January 6, 2021, immediately prior to the insurrection and riot at the Capitol so as to emphasize his alleged responsibility for inciting the violence. The episode resulted in a shake-up within the BBC. The president perceived an opportunity for another of his scarecrow lawsuits. Unfortunately, the Beeb has lawyers too—and deep pockets. It is capable of defending itself by forcing the president out of his masturbatory power flex and into an actual legal proceeding. From the Beeb its own self:
A US judge has ordered President Donald Trump to answer questions under oath in his defamation lawsuit against the BBC by 11 December. ... Charles Tobin, a lawyer representing the BBC, said in court that “we still haven’t been able to depose the plaintiff” with two months left in the discovery period. Trump cancelled a previous deposition on 16 October, citing “matters of national importance” while he was campaigning in Georgia. The judge in the case, US Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett, said that Trump must sit for the deposition by 11 December, unless the discovery period is extended. Last week, attorneys asked that Lett compel Trump to face deposition after the last scheduled meeting did not take place. On that day, Trump attended a midterms campaign rally in Dalton, Georgia and a fundraiser at his property in Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
The president already has forced his legal team into an embarrassing admission. They ducked the deposition on October 16 by citing the president’s pressing national-security duties, which, on that particular day, included a rally in Georgia where he shared makeup tips with members of the cult.
The president’s legal team moved along to demanding that his deposition not be videotaped. Judge Lett squashed that as well. She also seems to be a little fed up. From The Guardian:
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.”
A whole lot of judges are going to meet for a drink somewhere when this is all over.