The Justice Department wants a court to vacate an order for depositions from certain Biden administration officials in a free speech case brought by the attorneys general for Louisiana and Missouri.
The Washington Examiner, citing court documents, said the DOJ plans to file papers asking a court of appeals to vacate an Oct. 21 order that had cleared the way for depositions from Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly, and White House Digital Strategy Director Rob Flaherty.
Flaherty also holds a deputy assistant to the president position.
Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki, FBI supervisory special agent Elvis Chan and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had also been included in the Oct. 21 deposition order, according to the Examiner.
However, they are not named in the request to vacate.
The depositions are connected to a lawsuit filed by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt.
In the lawsuit, Landry and Schmitt accuse the Biden administration of collaborating with social media companies to censor free speech.
“We're hoping to show the American people that their government actively went out there and censored information and filtered information that they had an absolute right to have and to know so that they can make decisions, whether it was who they were going to vote for, or what kind of healthcare choices they were going to make during the pandemic," Landry said during an Oct. 13 interview on Newsmax's “National Report.”
The Examiner noted that the lawsuit lists the Hunter Biden laptop story, the COVID-19 lab leak theory, and the efficacy of masks as examples of suppressed speech.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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