(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Disgraced former FBI officials and lovers Peter Strzok and Lisa Page will have the chance to depose former President Donald Trump and current FBI director Christopher Wray over the release of their sordid text messages.
Strozk has been suing the DOJ since 2018 over his firing from the FBI. Page left the bureau voluntarily, but is joining Strozk in complaining that their privacy was violated by the DOJ’s decision to release hundreds of their text messages.
Strozk and Page were having an affair while both of them were investigating the Trump campaign’s supposed ties to the Russian government.
Text messages between the two showed their clear anti-Trump bias during the investigation. Perhaps the most notable example of this was when Page texted Strzok, “[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!”—to which Strzok replied, “No. No he’s not. We’ll stop it.”
Strzok and Page seek to depose Trump and Wray about the release of these messages, as well as the decision to fire Strzok.
Strzok claims Trump fired him as political retaliation, but Biden’s DOJ has submitted evidence to the contrary, and opposes his attempts to depose the former president.
“[Former FBI Deputy Director David] Bowdich further testified that he ‘never saw the President get involved in the termination of anyone beyond the politically-appointed Director,’ i.e., former Director James Comey,” the DOJ said in a filing last September, defending Trump.
“Mr. Bowdich also testified that he “absolutely” did not recall Director Wray ever telling him about any meeting with President Trump in which ‘the President pressed the Director to fire Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.’”
Despite this, the Obama-appointed judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled Thursday that the depositions can proceed.
“For the reasons stated on the record at the hearing on February 23 … 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 on the record at the hearing,” Jackson said.
However, President Joe Biden may still block the depositions. Judge Jackson noted that he has the right to invoke “executive privilege” to keep presidential communications private.
Jackson ordered the U.S. government to inform her by March 24 whether Biden will indeed invoke executive privilege on the matter.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
