Law firm Perkins Coie has launched a suit to challenge President Trump\u2019s stripping of security clearances for lawyers at the firm, saying it was targeted due to its past work for Democrats.<\/p>\n
Perkins Coie, which represented Hillary Clinton\u2019s presidential campaign in 2016, was the subject of an executive order<\/a> signed by Trump last week<\/a>, citing the \u201cdishonest and dangerous activity\u201d of the firm.<\/p>\n Beyond stripping the firm\u2019s clearances, the far-reaching order also essentially blocked its attorneys from federal buildings.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Order imposes these punishments as retaliation for the firm\u2019s association with, and representation of, clients that the President perceives as his political opponents,\u201d Perkins Coie wrote in the suit<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe retaliatory aim of the Order is intentionally obvious to the general public and the press because the very goal is to chill future lawyers from representing particular clients.\u201d<\/p>\n Perkins Coie is being represented by Williams & Connolly, a firm with significant experience<\/a> in fighting the federal government.<\/p>\n During the 2016 campaign, Perkins Coie lawyers worked with Fusion GPS, which was connected to the Steele dossier, which contained unflattering allegations about Trump and his connections to Russia.<\/p>\n Both Perkins Coie lawyers who worked on that case, Marc Elias and Michael Sussmann, left the law firm years ago.<\/p>\n Perkins Coie argues Trump acted outside the bounds of his executive authority in seeking to insert himself into matters that would otherwise be before the judicial branch. It also argues Trump violated its First Amendment free speech rights, as well as its Fifth Amendment rights to due process.<\/p>\n The firm also argued that by stripping its clearance and access to federal buildings, it was crippling the firm’s ability to represent clients suing the federal government.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Order is an affront to the Constitution and our adversarial system of justice. Its plain purpose is to bully those who advocate points of view that the President perceives as adverse to the views of his Administration. \u2026 Perkins Coie brings this case reluctantly,\u201d it said in the suit.<\/p>\n \u201cThe firm is comprised of lawyers who advocate for clients; its attorneys and employees are not activists or partisans. But Perkins Coie\u2019s ability to represent the interests of its clients \u2014 and its ability to operate as a legal-services business at all \u2014 are under direct and imminent threat. Perkins Coie cannot allow its clients to be bullied.\u201d <\/p>\n Trump has said he would strip the security clearances of a number of figures and has also done so for another firm,\u00a0Covington & Burling<\/a>, ending the security clearance for one attorney at the firm\u00a0who provided pro bono legal services to former special counsel Jack Smith.<\/p>\n He also reportedly stripped the security clearance of Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer who represented whistleblowers at the center of Trump\u2019s first impeachment.<\/p>\n Trump also previously signed<\/a> an order stripping security clearances from 50 former national security officials who had signed on to a letter casting doubt on the authenticity of a recovered laptop purported to belong to Hunter Biden. He also revoked clearances of several Biden administration officials, including former national security adviser Jake Sullivan and former Secretary of State Antony Blinken.<\/p>\n