WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday recoking the security clearances of employees at Perkins Coie LLP, arguing that the law firm is guilty of both unethical and discriminatory actions threatening national security, elections, and military strength.
The president’s executive order suspends the security clearances held by individuals at Perkins Coie, pending a review of their access to sensitive information and their impact on national interest, according to a White House fact sheet.
Additionally, the federal government is halting all sensitive compartmented information facility access currently provided to Perkins Coie, as well as all material and services. Federal agencies have been told not to hire Perkins Coie employees unless they’re specifically authorized to do so, and the government will be prohibited from funding contractors using the firm.
Perkins Cole received over $481,000 in various federal contracts from January to July last year, according to FEC records, while simultaneously being amongst the DNC’s top-paid law firms in recent years, per The National Law Journal.
The law firm’s practices will also be reviewed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to make sure that they are in compliance with laws against racial bias, according to the White House.
Trump said on Thursday that it was “an absolute honor to sign” the executive order.
“It’s just terrible,” he said. “It’s weaponization, you could say, weaponization against a political opponent, and it should never be allowed to happen again.”
The White House fact sheet explains that Perkins Coie hired Fusion GPS in 2016 to create a false “dossier” while representing Hillary Clinton. Clinton insider and controversial Democrat super lawyer Marc Elias was at Perkins Coie until 2021, when he separated to form his own firm.
The law firm’s former attorney, Michael Sussmann, was indicted for lying to the FBI about an alleged “secret channel of communications between the Trump Organization and a Russian bank,” a claim that the firm had pushed.
“Perkins Coie LLP has worked with activist donors, including George Soros, to judicially overturn enacted election laws, such as those requiring voter identification,” the White House’s Rapid Response X account said in a post. “A court was forced to sanction Perkins Coie attorneys for unethical lack of candor before the court.”
The Rapid Response account added: “Perkins Coie LLP has been accused of racially discriminating against its own attorneys, staff, and applicants. Perkins Coie has publicly announced racial percentage quotas for hiring and promotions, violating civil rights laws, and excluded applicants from fellowships based on race until lawsuits forced change.”
The executive order builds on the president’s promise to end the weaponization of government, which he signed on his first day in office. that order directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to aggressively scour government records and activities from President Joe Biden’s administration to uncover every action that was taken to punish perceived political opponents.
“The American people have witnessed the previous administration engage in a systematic campaign against its perceived political opponents, weaponizing the legal force of numerous Federal law enforcement agencies and the Intelligence Community against those perceived political opponents in the form of investigations, prosecutions, civil enforcement actions, and other related actions,” the order stated.
“These actions appear oriented more toward inflicting political pain than toward pursuing actual justice or legitimate governmental objectives,” it adds. “Many of these activities appear to be inconsistent with the Constitution and/or the laws of the United States, including those activities directed at parents protesting at school board meetings, Americans who spoke out against the previous administration’s actions, and other Americans who were simply exercising constitutionally protected rights.”
Trump also took action against the 50 former intelligence officials who falsely suggested Hunter Biden’s laptop was “part of a Russian disinformation campaign,” instructing agencies to also ban those individuals from stepping foot in secure U.S. government facilities, according to a memo obtained by The Daily Wire in late January.
“These individuals no longer possess a need to access secure facilities, and as outlined in the Executive Order, do not have the appropriate security clearances to access classified information,” the memo states.
