Global Courant 2023-05-12 02:56:24
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Thursday asked a judge for a scheduled impeachment of Donald Trump in a lawsuit brought by a FBI agent who was fired after critical text messages about the former president.
The government said in a federal court that a judge would have to order lawyers for Peter Strzok to take the testimony FBI Director Christopher Wray before trying to question Trump. The Justice Department says an interview with Wray could eliminate the need for Trump’s impeachment, and that if the trial judge does not grant his request, it will ask a federal appeals court to intervene.
Attorneys for Trump support the Justice Department’s position, according to a footnote in the government’s filing, while Strzok’s attorneys oppose it. Strzok’s legal team has scheduled the statement for May 24.
Strzok was a veteran counterintelligence agent and a lead official in the FBI’s investigation Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as Secretary of State and in Russian election interference and possible coordination between Moscow and the 2016 Trump campaign.
The filing comes as Trump finds himself the subject of a criminal investigation by a Justice Department special counsel into attempts by him and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, as well as the withholding of classified documents in his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
But when it comes to impeaching a current or former senior government official in a civil case, the Justice Department notes, a party must demonstrate “extraordinary circumstances” for the interview.
“These circumstances do not create the ‘extraordinary circumstances’ necessary to authorize the impeachment of a current or former senior government official, much less a former president,” the Justice Department wrote.
He sued the following year he said the FBI had yielded to “unrelenting pressure” from Trump when it fired him and that he had been unfairly fired for expressing his political views.
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Strzok’s lawyers have said they want to question Trump about whether he met with and pressured the FBI and Justice Department to fire him. But the Justice Department says the former deputy director of the FBI has already said he made the decision to fire Strzok on his own, and that he doesn’t recall Wray ever telling him about meeting with Trump. with the president pressuring him on Strzok.
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