Global Courant 2023-05-13 08:20:18
In a victory for the Justice Department, a federal judge on Friday blocked an impeachment of former President Donald Trump on May 24 over a pair of lawsuits filed by former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.
The order from U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson came in response to a Justice Department motion filed Thursday urging it to reconsider an earlier ruling that said Trump and FBI Director Christopher Wray could be tried in the lawsuits. deposited, without specifying the order of the statements. Government lawyers argued that Wray’s statement, which is not scheduled, could make Trump’s obsolete.
In her order Friday, Berman Jackson referenced her February ruling that Trump and Wray could not be impeached for more than two hours and limited to a “limited number of subjects” in lawsuits Strzok and Page filed against the Justice Department and FBI in 2019. had initiated. .
“The court is somewhat surprised to learn that the parties have since done nothing but argue over the order of the two statements,” Berman Jackson wrote. The administration appears disappointed that the Court did not order that the impeachment of the FBI director must be completed first, but it may recall that according to the Court, it was Director Wray, the only current senior government official in the group of FBI agents. .proposed deponents, whose continued essential duties fell fully under the protection of the doctrine in question.”
The doctrine referred to by the judge says that the lower-ranking official should be impeached first in case their answers make it unnecessary to interview the higher-ranking official.
The judge also defended her earlier ruling.
“The Court’s ruling was appropriate in light of all the facts, including the public statements made by the former president himself regarding his role in the plaintiff’s dismissal,” Berman Jackson wrote.
Lawyers for Strzok, Page and Trump did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday night.
Strzok and Page were both removed from then-special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation after critical text messages critical of Trump were made public in December 2017. As president, Trump often belittled the two officials.
Page’s lawsuit alleges privacy violations, while Strzok contends he was wrongfully fired.
Strzok’s lawyers are seeking Trump’s statement to determine whether he met with and directly pressured FBI and Justice Department officials to fire Strzok, or whether he directed White House aides to do this.
Page, who resigned as FBI attorney in May 2018, argues in her lawsuit that the text messages she exchanged with Strzok were disclosed illegally and that attacks by Trump and his allies damaged her reputation.
