'The Court is somewhat surprised to learn that since then, the parties have done nothing more than wrangle over the order of the two depositions,' U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson wrote.
The order from U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson was in response to a Justice Department motion filed on Thursday urging her to reconsider an earlierthat said that Trump and FBI Director Christopher Wray could be deposed in the lawsuits, without specifying the order of depositions. Government attorneys argued that Wray's deposition, which has not been scheduled, could make Trump's unnecessary.
In her order Friday, Berman Jackson referred to her February ruling that Trump and Wray could be deposed for no more than two hours and limited to a “narrow set of topics” in lawsuits Strzok and Page brought against the Justice Department and the FBI in 2019. "The Court is somewhat surprised to learn that since then, the parties have done nothing more than wrangle over the order of the two depositions," Berman Jackson wrote.
The doctrine referenced by the judge says that the lower-ranking government official should be deposed first in case their responses make it unnecessary to interview the higher-ranking official."The Court’s ruling was appropriate in light of all of the facts, including the former President’s own public statements concerning his role in the firing of the plaintiff," Berman Jackson wrote.
Attorneys for Strzok, Page and Trump did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday night.Strzok and Page were both removed from then-special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation after text messages that were critical of Trump became public in December 2017. As president, Trump often disparaged the two officials.
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