A federal judge on Friday said a pair of former top FBI officials could proceed in court with claims that the Justice Department violated their privacy by releasing text messages they exchanged in 2016 disparaging Donald Trump.

Delivering her ruling from the bench, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District of Columbia sharply questioned the Justice Department’s decision to release the text messages of former FBI lawyer Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, a onetime top counterintelligence agent who was taken off the special counsel investigation after his messages were uncovered.