Dem
53
Ties
2
GOP
45
Donald Trump is the master of stupid lawsuits. But even by his standards, the lawsuit he filed against the BBC is very bad. An episode of the documentary series Panorama, entitled "Trump: A Second Chance?", included footage from his 1/6 speech that was edited in a way that made it seem as if he had directly ordered the rioters to attack the Capitol, rather than just implying that is what he wanted done.
Trump pitched a fit, and the BBC apologized, agreeing that the editing was problematic. Two high-ranking BBC executives were also compelled to resign. That was not enough for the President, however, so he filed a lawsuit in federal court in which he argued that he has been damaged to the tune of $10 billion—$5 billion for defamation and another $5 billion for unfair trade practices. We struggle to even understand the basis for the latter part of that claim. And we really don't understand what he is trying to accomplish here. He clearly wasn't damaged to the tune of $10 billion, or $0 billion for that matter. And the BBC is not, say, CBS, and does not need to grease the skids to make sure a merger goes through without Department of Justice interference.
The BBC initially tried to get the suit dismissed by arguing that the documentary did not air in Florida, and so Trump could not possibly have been defamed there. That did not work, so they moved on to Plan B, which is make the deposition process as painful as is possible. They demanded that Trump himself sit for a deposition, which he hates to do because: (1) It is boring and (2) Even he knows that he says dumb things during depositions. However, he clearly wants the money and thinks he might get it, and the BBC is within its rights to demand that he be deposed. So, Trump negotiated a date and then... flaked on it last week, claiming vague "national security obligations." The BBC went to court to demand that he be compelled to actually do the deposition, and Judge U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué A. Lett concurred, threatening sanctions if Trump does not take care of business.
But that's not actually the dirty pool referred to in the headline. No, the BBC has just advised that it wants to depose another key witness, namely former special counsel Jack Smith. This would give him an opportunity to tell his story, without grandstanding frompeople like Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO), and would get a whole lot of attention. Trump and his legal team have pitched a fit, obviously, decreeing that "Smith lacks any personal knowledge regarding the issues in this matter."
The problem here is that defendants have pretty wide latitude to explore potential avenues for evidence, and Smith is clearly much more relevant here than some random Joe off the street. So, the Judge will probably OK the deposition. And Trump will certainly have to sit, even if he doesn't want to. So, he's going to have to make a decision sometime very soon about how badly he wants to tilt at the windmill that is that $10 billion claim. Our guess is that this lawsuit will be quietly withdrawn, like so many others. If not, Trump is risking that he ends up embarrassing himself. and that Smith embarrasses him even more. (Z)