Justice Dept. seeks to put Trump deposition on hold in case of FBI agent fired over text messages
Source: ABC News
WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department asked a judge Thursday to put on hold a scheduled deposition of Donald Trump in a lawsuit brought by an FBI agent who was fired over text messages critical of the former president. The government said in a federal court filing that a judge should order lawyers for Peter Strzok to take the deposition of FBI Director Christopher Wray before they seek to question Trump.
The Justice Department says an interview with Wray may eliminate the need for Trump's deposition, and that if the judge handling the lawsuit does not grant its request, it will ask a federal appeals court to intervene. Lawyers for Trump support the Justice Departments position, according to a footnote in the governments filing, while Strzoks attorneys oppose it. Strzok's legal team has scheduled the deposition for May 24.
Strzok was a veteran counterintelligence agent and a lead official in the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state and into Russian election interference and potential coordination between Moscow and the 2016 Trump campaign. The filing comes as Trump finds himself the subject of criminal investigations by a Justice Department special counsel into efforts by him and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, as well as into the retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
But when it comes to deposing a current or former high-level government official in a civil matter, the Justice Department notes, a party must show there are extraordinary circumstances" for the interview. These circumstances do not rise to the extraordinary circumstances necessary to authorize the deposition of a current or former high-ranking government official, much less a former President, the Justice Department wrote.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/justice-dept-seeks-put-trump-deposition-hold-case-99268899
Forgot about this case. Lots of chickens coming home...
gab13by13
(21,513 posts)a judge said that Trump should testify but DOJ appealed the decision so if Strzok was fired illegally by Trump it will be up to Chris Wray to testify what Trump told him. Isn't first hand information better than 2nd hand?
MOMFUDSKI
(5,821 posts)cleanest knife in the drawer.
Bev54
(10,096 posts)to give an excuse to fire him as well. It is long past time for him to go.
BumRushDaShow
(130,113 posts)I think it's the "order" of testimony at issue and in reference to what was carried out by the-then Deputy FBI Director at the time (David Bowdich, who is now working at Disney I saw ), not Wray...
By Eric Tucker an hour ago
WASHINGTON The Justice Department asked a judge Thursday to put on hold a scheduled deposition of Donald Trump in a lawsuit brought by an FBI agent who was fired over text messages critical of the former president.
The government said in a federal court filing that a judge should order lawyers for Peter Strzok to take the deposition of FBI Director Christopher Wray before they seek to question Trump. The Justice Department says an interview with Wray may eliminate the need for Trumps deposition, and that if the judge handling the lawsuit does not grant its request, it will ask a federal appeals court to intervene.
(snip)
As part of the lawsuit, Strzoks lawyers have said they want to question Trump about whether he met with and pressured FBI and Justice Department officials to fire him.
But the Justice Department says that the former FBI deputy director, David Bowdich, has already said that he made the decision to fire Strzok on his own, and that he did not recall Wray ever telling him about any meeting with Trump in which the president pressured him about Strzok.
(snip)
https://apnews.com/article/trump-fbi-justice-department-strzok-page-c1492a0ac421efb21fa3e9c86c67ba5a
gab13by13
(21,513 posts)DOJ is the reason why E. Jean Carroll's original lawsuit against Trump is on hold. Merrick Garland agreed with Bill Barr that defaming, slandering someone is an official duty of the president. A district judge ruled that opinion was ridiculous but Trump, with the backing of Garland, appealed to the Appeals court where it has been sitting on a decision for a very long time.
Now we have DOJ intervening once again on behalf of Donald Trump to stop another ruling made by a district judge that Trump must testify before Peter Strzok's lawyers. I mean Strzok is suing Trump why in heavens name shouldn't Trump be made to testify?