Justice Department moves to block Trump deposition after ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok sues over firing

    Justice Department is now asking a federal judge to permanently prevent former President Donald Trump from being deposed in the lawsuit, one week after FBI director Christopher Wray was called as a witness in a dispute over the termination of longtime agent Peter Strzok.

In a move to completely quash a subpoena to Trump, lawyers for the Justice Department stated that "[t]he deposition of former President Trump is not appropriate."

In 2019, Strzok sued the Justice Department and the FBI, claiming that his First Amendment rights had been violated when he had been wrongly fired the year prior due to private text messages he had exchanged with then-FBI attorney Lisa Page that reflected anti-Trump sentiments.

Strzok initially joined the special counsel Robert Mueller's team in 2016, having assisted in the FBI's investigation into potential connections between Trump's campaign and Russia. However, he was transferred after internal investigators uncovered the private text conversations.

According to the complaint, Strzok's termination "was the result of a long and public campaign by President Trump and his allies to vilify Strzok and pressure the agency to terminate him."

Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court, the federal judge presiding over the case, has referred to Trump as "a key witness to what took place."

However, after much legal wrangling, Berman Jackson decided that Strzok couldn't depose Trump without first deposing Wray. He concluded that Wray's statements might invalidate Trump's deposition, mainly if he were to testify under oath that the FBI's deputy director, not Wray, decided to fire Strzok and that he never discussed the decision or Trump's opinions with the deputy director.

Even though the motion submitted on Wednesday is largely redacted, it appears to confirm what Wray claimed during his deposition last week.

Whatever room there may have been for error is now gone, the Justice Department's attorneys informed the judge.

Trump's former chief of staff, John Kelly, testified that Trump privately questioned whether Strzok and Page could face discipline but that he doesn't recall Trump ever saying that to Wray or anyone else at the FBI. Other senior government officials who communicated with Trump have also testified under oath in the case.

"Everyone at the FBI, including Peter Strzok, continues to amaze me, " the author said. In June 2018, two months before Peter Strzok was fired, Trump declared at the White House, "Peter Strzok should have been fired long ago.

In response to the request filed on Wednesday, the Justice Department justified its course of action, stating that "there is ample evidence that the employee's misconduct was the reason for his removal and consistent testimony about the process the FBI followed in reaching its disciplinary decision."

A former president should not be deposed in this matter, according to the Justice Department's argument. Even if Trump wanted to have Strzok fired, the motion claimed no evidence supports this. If Strzok wants to argue that the former president's public statements were the reason the FBI fired Strzok, then that evidence must come from FBI officials, not Trump, it was stated.

If Berman Jackson declines to stop Trump from being removed from office in the upcoming weeks, the Justice Department has indicated that it is willing to appeal the case to a federal appeals court.

Trump has long blasted Strzok and Page for their involvement in the Russia investigation, calling it a "hoax" and even making the suggestion that they should be put behind bars at times.

Justice Department's inspector general reviewed the initial inquiry and concluded there was no proof "that political bias or improper motivation influenced the decisions" made by Strzok and others. And even though a more recent assessment from special counsel John Durham claimed that "confirmation bias" caused FBI agents to take unduly intrusive measures, the report also claimed that the evidence gathered did not support charges against Strzok.