A federal judge on Wednesday said that former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos must testify in a class-action lawsuit over her handling of student loan forgiveness claims, ruling that “exceptional circumstances” justify the rare deposition of a former Cabinet secretary, Politico reported. Judge William Alsup rejected the joint effort by DeVos and the Biden administration to prevent her from having to testify in the case. The lawsuit is being brought on behalf of roughly 160,000 borrowers who applied to the Education Department for loan forgiveness, on the grounds that they were defrauded by their for-profit colleges. Judge Alsup ruled that DeVos must sit for a three-hour deposition in which attorneys for the student borrowers may question her under oath about the decisions she made regarding the loan forgiveness program. The Trump administration stopped issuing final decisions on the student borrowers’ claims — known as borrower defense applications — for at least 18 months, and then swiftly dismissed large swaths of claims with little explanation provided to each borrower. The Trump administration said that it needed the time to figure out its policy and issue reasoned decisions on borrowers' claims.
