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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJudge orders Betsy DeVos to sit for three-hour deposition to explain rejecting loan forgiveness
Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has been ordered to sit for a three-hour deposition for lawyers handling a class-action lawsuit. The lawsuit, brought on behalf of around 160,000 student loan borrowers, came from the students defrauded by numerous for-profit colleges across the country. These were organizations like Trump University, where Trump settled a civil lawsuit for $25 million in November 2016. DeVos oversaw the 18-month delay and then rejection of student borrowers claims while she ran the Department of Education.
Judge William Alsup ruled that while it is very rare for a former Cabinet secretary to be deposed, exceptional circumstances in DeVos caseand the super shoddy and sketchy gaps in informationmeant that she needed to be deposed. The judge agreed with the class-action lawsuits attorneys that DeVos had intimate involvement in the decision-making process surrounding these loans, and since there was sparse documentation left over from the previous administration, DeVos deposition was required.
This is an important decision because the previous administration, whether through incompetence or nefariousness, seems to have kept very weak records of their processes of running government. Thats unacceptable. In fact, that tends to be the reason that former Cabinet secretaries usually dont get ordered into three-hour depositionsthey usually can argue that the information they would be able to provide is documented and available.
In February, Bidens Department of Justice filed a defense of DeVos from deposition, citing of all things harassment and called the motion part of a PR campaign that has been central to [the students] litigation strategy from the outset. It should be rejected and the court should quash the subpoena. The Department of Justice also put forth the argument that former Cabinet secretaries are generally immune from having to answer questions under oath about their official government work. Alsup did not agree with that assessment.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/5/20/2031331/-Judge-orders-Betsy-DeVos-to-sit-for-three-hour-deposition-to-explain-rejecting-loan-forgiveness
marmar
(77,094 posts)jalan48
(13,894 posts)Trailrider1951
(3,415 posts)The whole former administration is a bunch of criminals! Get them all!
bluedigger
(17,087 posts)What else do they need to know?
vsrazdem
(2,177 posts)malaise
(269,201 posts)Hope they depose her brother one of these days
George II
(67,782 posts)...just 21 days after Biden's inauguration, and most likely the history of the case was put together by trump or Barr appointees, not Biden. In fact, at the time Biden didn't even have his own Attorney General confirmed yet - that occurred a month later.
intheflow
(28,505 posts)Very misleading to claim it was wholly Bidens DOJ.