Trump cancels deposition in BBC case, lawyers say - Politico

ToplineA federal magistrate judge threatened Friday to levy sanctions against President Donald Trump for failing to "participate" in his own defamation lawsuit against the BBC, after the broadcaster informed the court that Trump had backed out of a planned deposition in the case and suggested he couldn't be interviewed until next year. President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn as he departs the White House on October 12 in Washington, DC. Key FactsMagistrate Judge Enjolique A. Lett issued an order Friday directing Trump to file a response to the BBC regarding his deposition by Oct. 22, noting the court had already "admonished" the president for his "lack of participation" in the case "to no avail. "Failing to "strict[ly]" comply with the court's schedule for discovery in the case, Lett wrote Friday, "will lead to sanctions. "Trump has sued the BBC for $10 billion, claiming the broadcaster allegedly defamed him by "deceptively" editing a video of the president's speech on Jan. 6, 2021 for a 2024 documentary, in order to falsely suggest Trump was trying to incite violence on Jan. 6 and bias viewers against him in the 2024 election.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has asked a judge to order US President Donald Trump to set a firm date to give sworn testimony in his $10-billion (€8.6 billion) defamation lawsuit against the network, court filings showed. "Nearly eight months into discovery, after seven depositions of BBC witnesses, and with only two months of discovery remaining, the BBC still has not been able to depose, and does not even have a schedule to depose, the most central figure in this case: Plaintiff himself," the BBC's lawyers wrote.

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Omar’s legal team says the search violated safeguards designed to protect constitutional rights of members of Congress. Lawyers for Democratic United States Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota have demanded the return of property seized in a federal raid of her Washington, DC home, accusing the US Department of Justice of conducting a politically motivated investigation and failing to follow judicial instructions during the search. “The political motivations behind this pre-election investigation and search are clear as day,” Omar’s lawyers wrote in a letter sent to federal prosecutors on Friday and obtained by The Associated Press news agency.

Israeli settlers have attacked European diplomats, including a French mayor, near the Palestinian village of Taybeh in the occupied West Bank. The delegation was visiting Palestinian olive harvesters on Saturday when the Israeli attackers confronted the group. The attack comes a day after settlers assaulted a US journalist north of Ramallah. In Saturday’s incident, the settlers targeted Belgium’s consul general, French and Polish diplomats and Catholic representatives, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said. “A French mayor was assaulted and a Belgian vehicle damaged,” Prevot said, linking the attack to what he called Israel’s “illegal settlement policy” and pledging to push for further European Union sanctions. French mayor Bernard Baudoux, who was assaulted, told the AFP news agency that the violence suggests that “there is a tolerance on the part of the Israeli government” towards settler violence. Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah, said the settlers surrounded the diplomats’ vehicles, pelted them with stones and smashed their windows.