大卫·菲舍尔 迈阿密——周四，BBC和唐纳德·特朗普的律师在法庭上就前特别检察官杰克·史密斯是否应在总统针对该广播公司提起的100亿美元诽谤案中接受取证展开交锋——特朗普强烈反对这一可能性。
DAVID FISCHER MIAMI — Lawyers for the BBC and for Donald Trump were tussling in court Thursday over whether former special counsel Jack Smith should be deposed in the president’s $10 billion defamation case against the broadcaster — a possibility that Trump strongly opposes.
在迈阿密美国治安法官恩乔利克·莱特主持的听证会上，双方预计还将讨论特朗普本人何时接受取证这一棘手问题。
In a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett in Miami, the parties were also expected to address the thorny issue of when Trump himself will be made available for deposition.
BBC上周请求法官强制特朗普出庭，此前他们称特朗普以“国家要务”为由取消了原定于10月16日的日期。这家英国广播公司表示，特朗普试图将其出庭时间推迟到2027年1月。法官已威胁称，如果特朗普不遵守法院的时间安排，将实施制裁。
BBC asked the judge last week to compel Trump to appear after they said he canceled an agreed-upon date of Oct. 16, citing “matters of national importance.”The British broadcaster says Trump is trying to delay his appearance until January 2027. The judge has threatened sanctions if Trump fails to comply with the court’s schedule.
特朗普经常回避取证，他于去年12月对BBC提起诉讼，要求赔偿100亿美元。他指控这家公共资助的广播公司诽谤，并在一部名为《特朗普：第二次机会》的纪录片中实施欺骗性和不公平的贸易行为。BBC承认，制片人将特朗普2021年1月6日在美国国会大厦遭冲击前对其支持者所作演讲中不同部分的引语拼接在一起，使其看起来像是在直接煽动暴力。该广播公司就剪辑问题道歉，BBC负责人及其最高新闻主管均辞职。但BBC否认了特朗普关于其诽谤的指控。
Trump, who has often avoided depositions, filed his lawsuit against the BBC last December, seeking $10 billion in damages. He accused the publicly funded broadcaster of defamation as well as deceptive and unfair trade practices related to a documentary, “Trump: A Second Chance.”The BBC acknowledged that 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 he was directly urging violence. The broadcaster apologized over the editing, and the head of the BBC and its top news executive both resigned. But BBC has denied Trump’s claims that it defamed him.
为加强辩护，该广播公司本月早些时候传唤了史密斯。特朗普的律师在一份请求就此举行听证会的联合文件中辩称，史密斯并非本案当事方，没有充分理由要求其出庭。
To bolster its defense, the broadcaster subpoenaed Smith earlier this month. Trump’s lawyers argued, in a joint filing asking for a hearing on the matter, that there was no good reason for Smith, who is not a party to the case, to appear.
“史密斯对本案所涉问题没有任何个人了解，”他们在提交的文件中辩称。“特朗普总统2021年1月6日发表演讲时他并不在场……也没有参与演讲稿的准备工作。史密斯对特朗普总统发表演讲时的心理状态没有任何个人了解。”特朗普一方还辩称，“史密斯的证词将是重复性的”，因为他已经就1月6日事件发表了长篇报告，并作了数小时的证词。“他的全部证词都是公开可查的，”文件中辩称。
“Smith lacks any personal knowledge regarding the issues in this matter,” they argued in the filing. “He was not present when President Trump’s January 6, 2021, speech … was made, nor did he participate in its preparation. Smith does not have any personal knowledge regarding President Trump’s state of mind at the time the Speech was given.”Trump’s side also argued that “Smith’s testimony would be duplicative,” because he published he lengthy report on the events of January 6 and also testified for many hours. “The entirety of his testimony is publicly available,” it argued.
BBC在同一份文件中反驳称，关于1月6日事件，很少有人比史密斯掌握更多信息，他多年来一直在研究和调查这些事件。
The BBC countered, in the same filing, that there were few more knowledgeable sources about the events of Jan. 6 than Smith, who studied and investigated them for years.
“很难想象还有谁比史密斯先生在这些问题上更具权威性，他花了数年时间收集这些主题的证据，背后有司法部的力量和大陪审团的权力作为支撑，”BBC的律师辩称。
“It is difficult to imagine a more authoritative source on these issues than Mr. Smith, who spent years gathering evidence on those topics with the force of the Justice Department and the power of the grand jury behind him,” the BBC’s lawyers argued.
“没有人强迫原告提起这起诉讼，也没有人强迫他否认自己1月6日的演讲煽动了随后在国会大厦发生的暴力事件。但只要他选择继续维持此案，他就不能犯下根本性的不公，阻止BBC获取其就他诉讼请求的每一项要素进行有力辩护所需的证据……”还有一个关键问题悬而未决：特朗普本人何时出庭？在10月13日提交的一份文件中，BBC的律师表示，他们最初于7月提出了取证日期的请求，并多次跟进，双方最终商定在10月16日进行。
“No one forced Plaintiff to file this lawsuit and to dispute that his speech on January 6 incited the violence that followed at the Capitol. But as long as he chooses to maintain the case, he cannot commit the fundamental injustice of preventing the BBC from obtaining the evidence it needs to robustly defend itself on every element of his claim…” A key question also remains: When will Trump himself appear? In a filing Oct. 13, BBC lawyers said they first requested dates for a deposition in July, and followed up repeatedly, with both sides eventually agreeing on Oct. 16.
在数周的沉默之后，他们写道：“原告律师于2026年9月28日作出回复，表示‘总统因其他具有国家重要性的事务，无法于10月16日出席其证词录取’，并称律师将‘努力在本周末前向你们提供一个替代日期’。但他并未提供。”他们表示，随后被告知，在12月18日证据开示截止之前，特朗普“完全没有时间接受证词录取”，特朗普将改为在1月的第二或第三周安排时间。
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.”They said they were then told that Trump “has no availability whatsoever for a deposition” before discovery is set to close on Dec. 18, and that Trump would instead make himself available the second or third week of January.
律师查尔斯·D·托宾在提交的文件中写道：“证据开示还剩两个月，BBC仍未能对本案最核心的人物——即原告本人——进行证词录取，甚至没有证词录取的时间安排。这些拖延违背了证据开示的合作精神，使BBC无法获得为有力进行辩护所必需的证据。”
“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.”