吉尔·科尔文 纽约 — 广播公司律师称，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普正试图推迟他在对英国广播公司提起的诽谤案中的出庭作证时间，直至2027年1月。
JILL COLVIN NEW YORK — Lawyers for the BBC say President Donald Trump is trying to delay sitting for a deposition in the defamation case he brought against the British broadcaster until January 2027.
本周，他们向佛罗里达州法院提交文件，要求法院迫使总统出庭应诉，因为他们称他本周取消了此前约定好的出庭日期，理由是“国家重要事项”。
In a filing this week , they asked a Florida court to compel the president to appear in the $10 billion case after they say he canceled an agreed-upon date this week, citing “matters of national importance.”
“发现程序尚余两个月，BBC仍未能进行证人询问，甚至尚未安排询问时间，而此案中最核心的人物——原告本人——仍未接受询问，”律师查尔斯·D·托宾在文件中写道。“这些延迟违背了发现程序的合作精神，阻碍了BBC获取进行有力抗辩所需的证据。”
“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,” attorney Charles D. Tobin wrote in the filing. “Those delays have flouted the cooperative spirit of discovery and precluded the BBC from obtaining the evidence necessary to robustly litigate its defense.”
特朗普有回避作证的历史，他于去年12月对BBC提起诉讼，要求赔偿100亿美元，指责该英国广播公司进行诽谤，以及与纪录片《特朗普：第二次机会》相关的欺骗性和不公平贸易行为。英国的公共资助全国性广播公司承认，其剪辑人员将特朗普于2021年1月6日向支持者发表的演讲中不同部分的引语拼接在一起，使其看起来像是他在美国国会大厦被冲击之前直接煽动暴力。
Trump, who has a history of avoiding depositions, filed the lawsuit against the BBC last December, seeking $10 billion in damages as he accused the British broadcaster of defamation as well as deceptive and unfair trade practices related to a documentary, “Trump: A Second Chance.”Britain’s publicly funded national broadcaster admitted filmmakers spliced together quotes from different sections of the speech Trump delivered to his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, before the storming of the U.S. Capitol, to make it seem like he was directly urging violence.
这份33页的诉状指控BBC播出了“对特朗普总统的虚假、诽谤性、欺骗性、贬低性、煽动性和恶意的描述”，称这是“公然试图干涉和影响”2024年美国总统大选的行为。
The 33-page lawsuit accused the BBC of broadcasting a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction of President Trump,” calling it “a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence” the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
广播公司就该剪辑向特朗普道歉，BBC总裁及该广播公司新闻最高主管双双辞职。但广播公司否认了特朗普关于其对他进行诽谤的指控。
The broadcaster apologized to Trump over the edit and the head of the BBC and the British broadcaster’s top news executive both resigned. But the broadcaster has denied Trump’s claims that it defamed him.
在本周的文件中，BBC律师称，他们早在7月就首次请求安排作证日期，并多次跟进。双方最终同意在10月16日进行作证。
In the filing this week, BBC lawyers said that they first requested dates for the deposition in July, and followed up repeatedly. Both sides, they said, eventually agreed on Oct. 16.
然而，在沉默了数周之后，他们写道：“原告律师于2026年9月28日作出回应，表示‘由于其他国家重要事务，总统将于10月16日无法参加证人询问’，并称将‘尽力在本周末之前为您提供替代日期’。但他并未这样做。”相反，他们说，他们上周被告知，特朗普“完全没有时间参加证人询问”，而证据开示程序将于12月18日结束。他们还被告知，特朗普将改为在1月的第二或第三周安排时间。
However, after weeks of silence, they wrote, “Plaintiff’s counsel responded on September 28, 2026, indicating that ‘the President is no longer available for his deposition on October 16 due to other matters of national importance’ and that counsel would ‘endeavor to provide you with a replacement date by the end of this week.’ He did not.”Instead, they said, they were told last week that Trump “has no availability whatsoever for a deposition” before discovery is set to close on Dec. 18. and were told that Trump would instead make himself available the second or third week of January.
针对该提交文件作出回应的声明中，特朗普法律团队的一位发言人未涉及特朗普延迟的原因，但重申了对BBC的指控，并称总统正在让该广播公司“为其诽谤和鲁莽的选举干涉行为承担责任，就像他让其他假新闻主流媒体为其不当行为负责一样。”特朗普在2023年自愿撤回了他对前律师和“清道夫”迈克尔·科恩提起的5亿美元诉讼，就在他准备在那起诉讼中作出证词的几天前。
In a statement in response to the filing, a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team did not address the reasons for Trump’s delay, but repeated its allegations against the BBC and said the president was holding the broadcaster “accountable for its defamation and reckless election interference just as he has held other fake news mainstream media responsible for their wrongdoing.”Trump voluntarily dropped a $500 million lawsuit he filed against his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen in 2023, days before he was set to give a deposition in that suit.