Ty Cobb predicts Trump will likely skip deposition, dismiss BBC lawsuit
I'd want to know what Ty Cobb is actually seeing behind the scenes before I took his prediction at face value, but he's been around this president's legal fights long enough that his read carries weight. Cobb served in the White House Counsel's office during the Russia probe, so he's watched Trump navigate court orders before, and he knows the difference between a legal strategy and a political instinct.
The deposition itself is the interesting part. A judge has ordered Trump to sit for questioning in his defamation suit against the BBC, and skipping it is rarely a winning move. Courts tend to treat a party who ignores a direct order poorly, and dismissal is the predictable consequence Cobb is pointing to. If Trump does walk out, he'd be handing the BBC a victory he could have contested on the merits.
Where I land is that this tells us more about how Trump approaches litigation than about the strength of his BBC claim. He treats lawsuits as extensions of his public battles, and a deposition is where the control he prizes most disappears. Cobb's forecast sounds less like prophecy and more like a warning that the president's instincts may cost him a case he chose to bring.