Omarosa Manigault Newman can’t force Trump to testify in trial, judge rules

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Newman faces a 2019 Justice Department lawsuit that alleges she failed to file a financial disclosure report after Trump fired her.

His lawyers had sought to impeach Trump because they claimed the administration prosecuted the former “Apprentice” candidate over Trump’s personal retaliation.

But DC District Court Judge Richard Leon wrote on Wednesday that Newman had failed to make a strong enough case that she could only get the information needed for her defense from Trump and the senior officials around him. Even though Trump has left the White House, he and his top advisers still have some protection, Leon decided.

“The need to protect the integrity of the underlying decision-making process and to encourage public service by protecting public officials from ‘indiscriminate testimony’ continues to persist after the official leaves government service,” Leon wrote in a notice. of 17 pages.

He added that the former president and cabinet-level officials can be protected under this standard. “The defendant did not bear his onus of showing that the impeachment of former President Trump is appropriate. Unfortunately for the defendant, even assuming that former President Trump has first-hand knowledge of how this matter is has been referred to the Justice Department, this information is irrelevant to any claim or defense in this case, ”Leon wrote.

However, Leon said Newman’s legal defense team may file a Justice Department attorney who told her about boxes of documents she kept at the White House.

It comes as several other lawsuits by former government employees against former senior Trump-era officials continue to spill over into the courts and could spark brawls over testimonies from former senior administration officials. Trump. These include lawsuits by former FBI officials Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page against the Department of Justice, and a case where the Department of Justice is prosecuting former National Security Advisor John Bolton.

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