Judge Blocks Donald Trump Deposition Request

Last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) obtained a court order barring former President Donald Trump from appearing for a deposition concerning lawsuits brought by ex-FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. 

On Thursday, May 11, Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the United States District Court issued the order. 

The FBI Crossfire Hurricane investigation, which looked at Trump’s possible ties to the Russian government during the 2016 campaign, generated much controversy, and Strzok and Page were at the center of it. Since Wray was lower on the DOJ food chain than Trump, the department’s lawyers argued that he should be deposed first in the lawsuit because his testimony may relieve Trump’s need to testify.

Berman Jackson cited her judgment in February, in which she allowed a two-hour deposition of Trump and Wray, provided that the questions were limited to a “narrow set of topics” related to the litigation. 

In 2019, Page and Strzok complained to the FBI and Department of Justice. In response to the dismissal of Peter Strzok, former President Trump has launched a lawsuit against the FBI and the Department of Justice. 

According to Strzok, he was unfairly fired for voicing his political ideas, and the FBI surrendered to “unrelenting pressure” from Trump. According to the DOJ, former FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich has already stated that he alone decided to remove Strzok and does not remember Wray informing him about a meeting in which the president pressured him regarding Strzok.

Page claims that the revelation of the text messages violated the law and made her the target of “frequent attacks by the President of the United States, as well as his allies and supporters.” Neither Page nor Strzok’s lawyers have commented publicly in response to Berman’s order. In the lawsuits, the former president was scheduled to testify on May 24 before Berman issued his ruling.