Donald Trump is punishing law firms that have represented what he perceives as his political enemies by stripping their security clearances and access to government buildings, delivering severe legal retribution against people he believes are threatening his agenda.
“We have a lot of law firms that we’re going to be going after, because they were very dishonest people,” the president told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo in an interview that aired on Sunday Morning Features on Sunday.
“They were very, very dishonest. I could go point after point after point. And it was so bad for our country. And we have a lot of law firms we’re going after,” Trump said.
The interview aired days after he signed another executive order targeting a prominent law firm, which opponents fear is designed to cast a chilling effect that threatens representation for groups and individuals who are challenging the administration’s agenda in court.
Last month, Trump signed a similar measure attacking the firm Covington & Burling, which provided pro bono assistance to special counsel Jack Smith in his personal capacity as he handled federal criminal investigations into the president’s alleged election interference and unlawful retention of classified documents.
This time, the president went further by blocking lawyers with the firm Perkins Coie from federal buildings entirely and barring federal agencies and contractors from working with it.
His apparent beef with Perkins Coie dates back to a federal investigation into connections between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russian agents to determine whether aides and officials had conspired to influence the outcome of that election. The firm represented Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee and worked with a research firm that produced the now-discredited dossier that alleged contacts between Trump and Russia.
Perkins Coie contracted Fusion GPS to conduct opposition research, which Fusion enlisted former British spy Christopher Steele to perform. Steele’s dossier, which was later turned over to the FBI, alleged Russia’s years-long campaign to compile compromising information against then-candidate Trump.
Now-former Perkins lawyers Marc Elias and Michael Sussman were both named in Trump’s order. Neither have worked for the firm in years. Since 2020, Elias has led the voting rights and civil rights litigation-tracking platform Democracy Docket, which has tracked hundreds of Trump-related cases.
“This is an absolute honor to sign,” Trump said during a signing ceremony at the White House on Thursday. “What they’ve done is just terrible. It’s weaponization, you could say weaponization against a political opponent, and it should never be allowed to happen again.”
A spokesperson for the firm called the order “patently unlawful” and said it intends to challenge it.
Last month, Trump signed a similar measure suspending security clearances for outside lawyers who supported Smith in his personal capacity.
The memo suspends “any active security clearances held by Peter Koski and all members, partners, and employees of Covington & Burling LLP who assisted former Special Counsel Jack Smith during his time as Special Counsel.”
During a signing ceremony, Trump called the memo the “deranged Jack Smith signing.”
Trump’s targeting of lawyers follows his administration’s threats to members of the judiciary, with Elon Musk and Republican members of Congress repeatedly threatening to impeach or punish judges who issue decisions that brush against their agenda, which judges across the country and ideological spectrum are condemning as unconstitutional, discriminatory and illegal.
After a string of legal blows against his orders and policy maneuvers, Trump issued an executive order this week that calls on agency and department heads to press for monetary “security” payments from plaintiffs if an injunction against the administration is issued.
That would mean plaintiffs – which have included civil rights groups, pregnant immigrants, trans teenagers and aid workers — would be required to pay the government’s legal fees, upfront, if a judge issues an injunction.
The American Bar Association has warned against the “escalating governmental efforts to interfere with fair and impartial courts, the right to counsel and due process, and the freedoms of speech and association in our country.”
“We reject the notion that the government can punish lawyers who represent certain clients or punish judges who rule certain ways,” American Bar Association president Wiliam R. Bay said in a statement this week. “We cannot accept government actions that seek to tip the scales of justice in this manner.”
