Judicial Watch to Depose Lightfoot Staff Member Over Allegedly Racist Interview Policy
A federal court ordered the deposition of a staff member in Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office in the Daily Caller News Foundation’s ongoing lawsuit over the Democrat’s policy to only grant interviews to journalists of color, Judicial Watch announced Friday.
“Judicial Watch announced today that a federal court ordered the deposition of a representative of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office in a lawsuit over her discriminatory interview policy,” Judicial Watch said in a statement.
“The court granted the request for discovery during a hearing this morning.”
“In doing so, the court rejected arguments by the mayor’s lawyers to shut down against discovery and to dismiss the legal challenge,” they wrote.
The conservative group sued Lightfoot on behalf of Thomas Catenacci and the DCNF after the reporter’s repeated attempts to secure an interview with the mayor failed to get a response.
The suit alleges that Catenacci, who is white, was denied the interview due to his race.
“We’re pleased by the federal court ruling requiring a representative of Mayor Lightfoot to explain, under oath, the scope and nature of her racist interview policy,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said.
Lightfoot announced she would prioritize journalists of color for one-on-one interviews to celebrate her first two years in office in May.
This is exactly why I’m being intentional about prioritizing media requests from POC reporters on the occasion of the two-year anniversary of my inauguration as mayor of this great city.
— Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot (@chicagosmayor) May 19, 2021
“I look forward to understanding how the mayor’s office implemented such a discriminatory policy. My rights, and the First Amendment rights of countless other reporters in America, must not be trampled upon,” Catenacci stated.
Catenacci will also be deposed at the request of Lightfoot’s attorneys.
Judicial Watch filed the motion for limited jurisdictional discovery on Aug. 10 after “Mayor Lightfoot’s office once again changed its explanation about when and how she would only grant interviews to ‘journalists of color.’”
“America’s civil rights heroes must be turning over in their graves because of the overt racism now openly embraced by so many on the far left in America including Chicago’s Mayor Lightfoot,” DCNF President Neil Patel said Friday.
“We are optimistic the courts will agree that government officials are still not allowed to discriminate in America.”
Lightfoot’s attorneys did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment at the time of publishing.
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A version of this article appeared on the Daily Caller News Foundation website.
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