Donald Trump and his team weren’t content to simply go after former special counsel Jack Smith, they also targeted career Justice Department officials who worked on Smith’s team. There was no evidence they’d done anything wrong or failed to do their jobs effectively, but they were a stop on the president’s revenge tour.
As if that weren’t quite enough, Trump even signed an executive order punishing a private law firm that had assisted with Smith’s investigations. The New York Times described the move as “a breathtaking escalation.”
And then he did it again. The Washington Post reported:
In an Oval Office ceremony, the president signed an executive order hitting the large international law firm Perkins Coie with a sweeping directive that bans the federal government from hiring it, or from using contractors who work with it, except in limited circumstances. The order also bars Perkins Coie employees from entering federal buildings and suspends their security clearances.
In politics, Perkins Coie is known for, among other prominent things, representing Hillary Clinton.
The Post’s report added, “The move could have a chilling effect on law firms’ willingness to take on clients and cases that run counter to the Trump administration, challenging a fundamental tenet of the rule of law in the United States that everyone should have access to legal representation, experts said.”
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, issued a statement describing the White House’s campaign as “dangerous as hell.”
Raskin, a constitutional scholar, added, “By stripping security clearances from attorneys at Perkins Coie, Trump wants to make an example of lawyers who stand up for the law, which is what lawyers do. If you defend other people’s rights, even if it’s your job, the President of the United States will retaliate against you. These lawyers will be supported by Democrats in Congress as they do their work and celebrated for their courage in not being deterred by outrageous political bullying.”
The Democratic congressman concluded, “By threatening to seek costs and damages from private litigants, Donald Trump is trying to scare Americans out of court. Thanks to our Founders, we have a right to get lawyers to challenge the Administration’s blatantly unlawful efforts to freeze funds to essential government programs like wildfire prevention, scientific research and food assistance. We have a right to get brave lawyers to challenge MAGA and DOGE when they fire thousands of government workers and shut down agencies that defend American consumers against frauds and scams.”
Time will tell how and whether the relevant firms respond to the Republican’s offensive, but Raskin’s point is a good one. Circling back to our recent coverage, I can appreciate why many have grown inured — to Trump’s pettiness, to his abuses, to his fixation on retaliatory revenge, etc. — but it’s worth pausing to appreciate that steps like these aren’t supposed to be part of politics in the United States. The president is using the power of his office to punish private law firms, not because they did something improper or illegal, but because he disapproves of the firms taking on matters that affected him personally.
Mark Zaid, a Washington lawyer who also had his security clearance revoked by Trump, told the Times last week that the president’s first executive order on this was “a disgraceful affront to the entire legal and national security system.”
The fact that Trump then did it again makes matters vastly worse.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
