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Left: FILE — Donald Trump visits Café du Monde in New Orleans, July 25, 2023 (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert). Right: Hillary Clinton speaks during an event with first lady Jill Biden to celebrate the 2023 Praemium Imperiale Laureates in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023 (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).
President Donald Trump continued his attack on law firms whose attorneys have represented clients he perceives to be his enemies, signing an executive order suspending the security clearances and stripping access to government buildings for employees at Perkins Coie, the firm that represented Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign.
“This is an absolute honor to sign,” Trump said during the Oval Office signing ceremony, according to the New York Times. “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.”
Thursday’s order was similar to a memo the president signed last week in which he directed the heads of all executive departments and agencies to “immediately take steps” to suspend the security clearances and “terminate any engagement” with Covington & Burling over the law firm’s work with former special counsel Jack Smith.
Smith headed a pair of investigations into Trump after his first term in office that resulted in then-private citizen Trump being indicted for allegedly mishandling confidential documents and attempting to undermine the 2020 election. Smith resigned in January and the charges against Trump were dropped due to the Justice Department’s long-standing policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
In Trump’s latest bid to punish firms he believes are working against his political agenda, the president took on a callow tone, resorting to name-calling and accusing Perkins Coie of “undermining democratic elections” and engaging in racially discriminate hiring practices. He also highlighted the firm’s hiring of Fusion GPS, which led to the infamous dossier containing unconfirmed allegations of the Trump campaign’s ties with Russia.
“The dishonest and dangerous activity of the law firm Perkins Coie LLP has affected this country for decades,” the order states. “Notably, in 2016 while representing failed Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Perkins Coie hired Fusion GPS, which then manufactured a false ‘dossier’ designed to steal an election. This egregious activity is part of a pattern. Perkins Coie has worked with activist donors including George Soros to judicially overturn popular, necessary, and democratically enacted election laws, including those requiring voter identification.”
The order also directed the U.S. attorney general and the chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to investigate the “diversity, equality, and inclusion” policies at large law firms doing business with the federal government to ensure compliance with “race-based and sex-based non-discrimination laws.”
A spokesperson for Perkins Coie said the firm plans to fight back against the administration.
“We have reviewed the Executive Order,” the statement said, per CBS News. “It is patently unlawful, and we intend to challenge it.”
Trump last month also stripped the security clearance of national security attorney Mark Zaid and employees of his firm. Zaid told the New York Times the move by Trump was “vindictive and petty,” further calling it a “disgraceful affront to the entire legal and national security system.”
The Washington, D.C.-based lawyer added that he and his colleagues also had their security clearances revoked “without any due process, simply because they represented someone the president doesn’t like.”
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