Washington – In the same Washington, DC, court where the Department of Justice has met grand juries to investigate former President Donald Trump’s actions surrounding the 2020 presidential election and his handling of classified documents, federal prosecutors handling a separate case were successful on Friday in their request to delay a Trump impeachment which had been scheduled for the end of this month over a period of four years. former civil suit filed by former FBI officials.
Former FBI counterintelligence officer Peter Strzok and an attorney from the Office, Lisa Pagesued the Justice Department after both were fired during the federal investigate Russian interference in the presidential elections of 2016. In the course of the investigation, text messages exchanged by the two revealed anti-Trump sentiments.
Strzok’s lawsuit claims it was unfair dismissed off the job for political reasons and is seeking reinstatement to the FBI and back pay. Page argues that the text messages were posted illegally and violated her privacy.
In a detailed order issued Friday evening, Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled in favor of the Justice Department’s request that FBI Director Christopher Wray be removed before Strzok has a chance to question Trump .
Both Strzok and Page have moved to depose numerous former and current government officials, and earlier this year, Jackson ruled that Strzok had the right to interview Trump and FWray. But according to an emergency filing Thursday, federal prosecutors say Trump’s statement, which was supposed to take place on May 24, was scheduled before such a meeting was set for Wray. The Justice Department said that violates long-standing rules that federal officials must be questioned in order of seniority.
“Contrary to the United States’ request, Mr. Strzok seeks to depose former President Trump before Director Wray,” prosecutors wrote Thursday, “making it impossible to determine whether the Director’s deposition could obviate the need for remove the former president”.
They asked the judge to order a new schedule for the depositions and threatened to take the matter to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals if he disagreed.
“The Attorney General authorized the government to apply to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for a writ of mandamus on that Court’s determination that former President Trump may be impeached in this matter” , the Department of Justice revealed in the filing. Writs of Mandamus are rare orders issued by higher courts that supersede the findings of lower court judges.
“For decades, the D.C. Circuit and virtually every other appellate court has recognized that subjecting high-level government officials—to say nothing of current or former presidents—to oral depositions is not ordinarily permitted. ” prosecutors wrote in their written motion. .
In his order Friday, Jackson wrote that “the parties have done little more than argue about the order of the two depositions.”
“The government seems saddened that the Court did not order the FBI director’s deposition to be completed first, but you may recall that it was the Court’s view that Director Wray, the only current high-ranking public official in the group of proposed deponents whose essential ongoing duties fell most directly under the protection of the doctrine at issue,” Jackson wrote. “However, in order to get the parties, who apparently still cannot agree on anything, to overcome this impasse, it is hereby ORDERED that the deposition of Christopher Wray will proceed first, leaving the instant motion moot “.
Attorneys for both Strzok and Page’s legal team did not immediately respond to Jackson’s order when contacted by CBS News.
Earlier this year, the White House said it would not claim executive privilege over Trump’s testimony, thereby protecting him from impeachment, and federal prosecutors said the former president did not request the privilege
Strzok and Page’s text messages and involvement in the Russia investigation fueled much of Trump’s anger toward the FBI during the Mueller investigation, alleging anti-Trump views within the Justice Department at the time. An inspector general’s report found that while the conduct was “completely antithetical to the department’s core values,” there was no evidence that any bias ultimately changed the outcome of the investigation.
In his lawsuit, Strzok alleges “The FBI fired [him] because of his protected political speech in violation of his rights under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.” the United States as well as its allies and supporters.”
The Justice Department asked Judge Jackson to respond to its request to block Trump’s testimony by Tuesday.
