BBC requests 'forced recording of testimony' against Trump, who filed 13 trillion won damages lawsuit

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Jang Jae-eun = British public broadcaster BBC asked the court to allow President Trump himself to be investigated directly in a lawsuit seeking damages filed by US President Donald Trump against the company.

According to the British daily Guardian, in an application submitted to the Federal District Court in Florida on the 13th (local time), the BBC's lawyers urged the court to issue a mandatory execution order, saying that President Trump is at the core of the lawsuit but is intentionally avoiding attendance at the deposition.

Deposition is a procedure in which attorneys for both sides call the other party or key witnesses to hear and record testimony before a civil suit trial begins in earnest in the United States.

President Trump filed a $10 billion (approximately KRW 13.4 trillion) lawsuit against the BBC in December 2025, claiming that the BBC's current affairs program 'Panorama' maliciously edited his supporters' rally speech during the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.

The BBC acknowledged the editing error and officially apologized, but President Trump did not withdraw the lawsuit.

Originally, the BBC and President Trump's team agreed to record President Trump's testimony on the 16th, but the schedule was postponed.

President Trump's lawyer notified him of his absence, citing 'important national affairs issues' as the reason, and announced that he would only be able to appear in mid-January next year.

In this lawsuit, discovery, a process in which the plaintiff and defendant are required to disclose and collect evidence and information to each other, began almost eight months ago.

BBC lawyers filed a complaint in the application stating, "Even with only two months left until the deadline for discovery of evidence, not only have we not been able to record the testimony of the most important person, the plaintiff himself, but we have not even been able to set a schedule."

The federal district court in Florida plans to discuss whether to compel the recording of President Trump's testimony at a hearing regarding discovery of evidence on the 22nd.

Testimony recording is usually done outside the court, but it may be conducted under the supervision of a judge if the parties are evasive or uncooperative.