- Donald Trump issued three orders revoking the security clearance of lawyers at major firms.
- He described the firms as “dishonest and dangerous” accusing each of weaponizing the judicial process.
- Each of the firms has ties to Trump’s political opponents — and legal scholars say that’s a problem.
Donald Trump issued another order on Friday revoking the security clearance of employees at Paul Weiss, a major law firm associated with his political opponents.
The Friday order is the third time in as many weeks that the president has singled out law firms — Paul Weiss, Perkins Coie, and Covington & Burling — to have their workers’ clearances revoked. He also ordered a review of their government contracts. It comes just days after a federal judge blocked the order against Perkins Coie, arguing it was likely unconstitutional.
Critics warn that the president’s efforts to bar the law firms’ employees from interacting with federal agencies or even entering federal buildings could not only put the firms out of business but also erode the rights of lawyers — and people seeking legal counsel — across the country.
Representatives for the White House, Paul Weiss, Perkins Coie, and Covington & Burling did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
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Ties to Trump’s Democratic opponents
Trump’s order against Paul Weiss singled out attorney Mark Pomerantz, who had previously left the firm to join the Manhattan District Attorney’s office investigation into Trump’s finances until his resignation from the case in February 2022. Additionally, the order highlights that a Paul Weiss partner, on behalf of the District of Columbia Attorney General, brought a pro bono suit against individuals accused of participating in the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
The order says allowing employees of the Paul Weiss firm to maintain their security clearance “would threaten the national security of or otherwise be inconsistent with the interests of the United States.”
Similarly, Trump’s March 6 order against Perkins Coie described the firm’s activity as “dangerous and dishonest,” highlighting the firm’s representation of then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in her 2016 run against Trump.
“Perkins Coie hired Fusion GPS, which then manufactured a false ‘dossier’ designed to steal an election,” the order reads, referring to a memo compiled by the former British spy Christopher Steele in the run-up to the election, which contained allegations of collusion between Trump’s campaign and the Russian government.
Many of the claims in the so-called Steele dossier were uncorroborated, though some were eventually verified.
On February 25, Trump issued a separate memo targeting Covington & Burling. The memo specifically named and suspended the security clearance of attorney Peter Koski, who provided legal assistance to former Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Smith led the investigations into Trump and his affiliates related to efforts to interfere with the lawful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election and the possession of highly classified documents at the Mar-a-Lago social club following his presidency.
In each of the orders, Trump accused the named law firms and specific attorneys of weaponizing the judicial process.
Big impact on Big Law
Paul Weiss, Perkins Coie, and Covington & Burling are among the largest law firms in the United States, with multibillion-dollar annual revenues, according to AmLaw Global 200 Rankings. Each firm employs more than 1,000 attorneys and support staff like paralegals, researchers, and case managers.
Anyone working at the firm who works a case involving a government contract or represents a client involved in government work — or a claim against the government — could require a security clearance, Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, told Business Insider.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s someone working on a classified documents case or a case involving terrorism, they have to have clearance to review the material that is the evidence and the discovery in the case,” Rahmani said. “Anything that may touch upon national security and military secrets, the lawyers have to have that clearance, and if they’re not afforded that clearance, they can’t engage in the representation.”
Removing that clearance is a blow to each firm’s business — a potentially fatal one, a lawyer representing Perkins Coie said in a recent hearing.
“It truly is life-threatening,” Politico reported Dane Butswinkas, who represents Perkins Coie, said during an emergency hearing in which the firm challenged the legality of the president’s order. “It will spell the end of the law firm.”
Rahmani said the revocation of the lawyers’ security clearances could also impact clients seeking counsel, by limiting who they are able to retain to attorneys that the Trump administration allows to have clearance.
Politico reported the judge ruled on Wednesday during the emergency hearing that the “retaliatory animus” of Trump’s order against Perkins Coie is “clear on its face” and “runs head-on into the wall of First Amendment protections.”
Howell issued a temporary restraining order, blocking portions of the president’s order from taking effect against Perkins Coie staff while legal challenges play out. The orders affecting Paul Weiss and Covington & Burling staff remain in effect.
“This may be amusing in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ where the Queen of Hearts yells, ‘Off with their heads!’ at annoying subjects … and announces a sentence before a verdict,” Politico reported Howell said. “But this cannot be the reality we are living under.”
