The BBC is seeking to depose former special counsel Jack Smith as it defends itself against President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit over a documentary that spliced together portions of his Jan. 6, 2021, speech.
In a federal court filing on Monday, the broadcaster said Smith could have evidence relevant to Trump’s intent surrounding the Capitol attack. Smith is not objecting to the subpoena, while Trump’s lawyers argue his testimony would be irrelevant, repetitive and based on secondhand evidence.
The request comes amid a separate fight over Trump’s own deposition, just days after a federal magistrate judge threatened to sanction Trump for missing his.
The BBC said Smith’s public report does not include all of the evidence gathered during his investigation. The broadcaster pointed to Smith’s conclusion that investigators had strong evidence the violence on Jan. 6 was foreseeable to Trump and that he and his allies sought to use it to advance their efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
A BBC spokesperson declined to comment beyond the court filings.
Trump’s legal team argued Smith lacks firsthand knowledge of the issues in the case and said any evidence he gathered came from other sources. The president’s lawyers also argued Smith has already testified publicly multiple times about his Jan. 6 investigation.
Trump sued the BBC in December over the “Panorama” documentary “Trump: A Second Chance?,” which aired shortly before the 2024 presidential election. The program edited together separate portions of Trump’s Jan. 6 speech, including his remarks about walking to the Capitol and fighting “like hell.”
The BBC later apologized for the edit, saying it created the mistaken impression that Trump had made a direct call for violent action, but denied that the documentary defamed him. The broadcaster has sought to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing in part that the doc was not distributed in the United States and that Trump cannot show the edit caused reputational harm.
Trump’s own deposition remains unresolved. In a separate Mondayfiling, the BBC said Trump had been scheduled to sit for questioning on Oct. 16 but canceled after his lawyers cited “other matters of national importance.”
The broadcaster noted that Trump instead spoke at a campaign rally in Dalton, Georgia, that day before traveling to Mar-a-Lago for a Republican National Committee fundraising event. The BBC renewed its request that the court compel Trump to confirm a deposition date and sit for questioning.
A hearing on Trump’s deposition dispute is scheduled for Thursday.
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