Judge allows deposition of Trump in Strzok lawsuit.

Former President Donald Trump Ordered to be Deposed in Lawsuit Against DOJ

A federal judge has ordered former President Donald Trump to be deposed in a lawsuit filed by former FBI agent Peter Strzok against the Department of Justice (DOJ). The lawsuit alleges wrongful termination following the debunked Russia collusion investigation and claims that Strzok was fired at Trump’s direction.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, agreed with the request to depose Trump in a brief order on July 6. This comes after the DOJ asked one final time to block Trump from being deposed.

“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,” Ms. Jackson wrote in her brief order.

Under the “apex doctrine” in U.S. law, high-ranking government officials, such as the president, enjoy a degree of immunity from being compelled to provide testimony or evidence in legal proceedings.

In May, Judge Jackson ordered a stay on the deposition of Trump until FBI Director Christopher Wray was deposed in the lawsuit. DOJ lawyers argued that Wray, a lower-ranked official, should be deposed first as any evidence he provided could mean that Trump would not have to testify.

Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who is also suing the DOJ and FBI, played key roles in the FBI Crossfire Hurricane investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Strzok also played a role in the investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server to send classified information. He reportedly changed key language in the conclusion of the Clinton email investigation from “grossly negligent,” which would have been a crime, to “extremely careless,” which may have exonerated Clinton.

Text Messages

Special counsel Robert Mueller fired Strzok in 2018 after around 10,000 text messages between Strzok and Page were discovered. The messages sent between 2015 and 2016 revealed the pair’s strong anti-Trump bias and critical comments about Trump and his supporters as they worked on the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. The messages also exposed an alleged affair between the two.

The FBI special counsel probe ultimately concluded that the Trump campaign did not collude with the Russian government to get elected. However, corporate media outlets aired several unfounded claims about Trump that came from what appeared to be anonymous sources within the FBI and DOJ.

The DOJ had argued that there was no evidence Strzok was fired at Trump’s direction, contending that his deposition “is not appropriate.” The DOJ claimed that Trump’s public remarks, which might have indicated his desire for Strzok to be terminated, were not the reason for the firing.

In a bid to distance the decision from Trump, the government contended that testimony from FBI Director Christopher Wray, former White House chief of staff John Kelly, and others had already addressed the decision to terminate Strzok.

The DOJ recently argued in court that Trump’s testimony is irrelevant since it was former FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich who independently made the decision to remove Strzok.

According to