By Steve Neavling
The Justice Department is trying to prevent Donald Trump from being deposed this month in lawsuits filed by two former FBI officials who allege they were unfairly targeted because they investigated the former president’s ties to Russia.
DOJ attorneys said in a court filing Thursday that Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar authorized an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals, barring a lower court judge reconsidering an earlier ruling allowing Trump to be deposed before FBI Director Christopher Wray, NBC News reports.
In February, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson agreed to allow the depositions of Trump and Wray under certain conditions.
“The Court authorized the plaintiffs to conduct depositions of each witness that do not exceed two hours and are limited to the narrow set of topics specified,” Jackson ruled after a closed-door hearing Thursday.
In the filing, Justice Department attorneys said they recently became aware that Trump’s deposition had been scheduled for May 24, before Wray’s deposition.
“Contrary to the request of the United States, Mr. Strzok seeks to depose former President Trump before Director Wray, thereby making it impossible to determine if the Director’s deposition might obviate the need to depose the former President,” Justice Department attorneys wrote in a 10-page motion to block Trump’s deposition.
Senior FBI Agent Peter Strzok and former bureau lawyer Lisa Page filed separate lawsuits against the FBI and Justice Department after the public release of their text messages, which showed they were having an affair and disliked Trump.
Strzok, who was fired, alleges he was unfairly terminated. Paige, who resigned, claims the release of the text messages violated her privacy rights.
Trump repeatedly and publicly slammed Strzok and Page, claiming their text messages proved the FBI was prejudiced against him.
