A federal judge Thursday blocked an effort by the Justice Department (DOJ) to prevent former President Trump from being deposed in lawsuits brought by former FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.
Strzok and Page’s attorneys want Trump to sit for the deposition to determine if he met with or pressured FBI leaders to fire them from the agency.
The pair filed lawsuits after Strzok was fired and Page resigned from their positions in 2018, allegedly due to their actions during the FBI’s probe into Trump’s ties with Russia. Both came under congressional scrutiny after personal texts revealed that they personally did not like Trump.
Strzok sued for wrongful termination, while Page sued for violation of privacy.
The DOJ argued that the abundance of evidence already available, and the testimony of FBI Director Christopher Wray, would make Trump’s testimony unnecessary.
Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson disagreed with the government.
“Given the limited nature of the deposition that has been ordered, and the fact that the former President’s schedule appears to be able to accommodate other civil litigation that he has initiated, the outcome of the balancing required by the apex doctrine remains the same for all of the reasons previously stated,” she wrote.
Jackson added that while existing testimony didn’t appear to strengthen the argument against Trump, the former president had “publicly boasted” about his involvement.