A federal appeals court on Thursday blocked two GOP-led states’ attempt to secure former White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s testimony in their lawsuit claiming the Biden administration unlawfully pressured social media companies into taking down content.
A three-judge panel on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s ruling authorizing Psaki’s deposition in the case, determining that her testimony did not merit the “extraordinary circumstances” needed to proceed with depositions of current or former high-ranking government officials.
Missouri and Louisiana’s attorneys general and a group of private individuals filed the lawsuit in May, accusing the Biden administration of effectively censoring content related to the pandemic, elections and the Hunter Biden laptop story by pressuring social media companies.
The two states had argued they needed Psaki’s deposition to explore the basis for various public statements she made about the Biden administration’s conversations with social media companies and misinformation.
U.S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty, who was appointed by former President Trump, in October had allowed depositions of Psaki and more than half a dozen other officials to proceed, but the appeals panel on Thursday ruled that much of the states’ desired information from Psaki’s potential deposition was already apparent.
“As Press Secretary, Psaki’s role was to inform the media of the administration’s priorities, not to develop or execute policy,” read the ruling from Judges Leslie Southwick, Edith Clement and Stephen Higginson. “Unsurprisingly, then, the record does not demonstrate that Psaki has unique first-hand knowledge that would justify the extraordinary measure of deposing a high-ranking executive official.”
The three-judge panel, two of whom were appointed by former President George W. Bush while the other was appointed by former President Obama, ordered the states to pursue less intrusive alternatives to her deposition.
“We have no problem with the court’s request. We look forward to obtaining more discovery,” Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry (R) said in response to the ruling.
Psaki served as Biden’s press secretary until May, when she left the administration before joining MSNBC.
The Hill has reached out to Psaki and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s (R) office for comment.
The appeals court had previously overturned the lower ruling authorizing the depositions of White House Director of Digital Strategy Rob Flaherty, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly.
Updated: 6:07 p.m.