Paul Weiss is latest law firm targeted by Trump administration
President Donald Trump has expanded his attacks on private law firms, saying in an executive order Friday he would end “government sponsorship of harmful activity” by Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump has expanded his attacks on private law firms, saying in an executive order Friday he would end “government sponsorship of harmful activity” by Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
The March 14 executive order, called “Addressing Risks from Paul Weiss,” suspends active security clearances held by people at the firm, pending a review of whether they “are consistent with the national interest.” It restricts their access to federal government buildings and aims to terminate their government contracts.
The order additionally advises agency officials to limit their engagement with Paul Weiss employees and to refrain from hiring them.
“Global law firms have for years played an outsized role in undermining the judicial process and in the destruction of bedrock American principles,” Trump said in the executive order. “Many have engaged in activities that make our communities less safe, increase burdens on local businesses, limit constitutional freedoms, and degrade the quality of American elections. … My administration will no longer support taxpayer funds sponsoring such harm.”
The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Law.com have coverage.
The Friday executive order came days after Perkins Coie won a temporary restraining order in a lawsuit filed against the Trump administration over a similar directive targeting the firm and its clients. The firm said the order, which was issued March 6, is retaliation for representing Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016, as well as clients with cases adverse to the administration and its allies.
The Trump administration faults Paul Weiss for bringing a pro bono suit against people who allegedly participated in events near the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to the latest executive order. It also notes that the firm hired attorney Mark Pomerantz, who sought to build a criminal case against Trump when he worked at the Manhattan district attorney’s office in New York City.
In a statement published by Law.com, a spokesperson for Paul Weiss said Pomerantz retired from the firm in 2012. It also said Pomerantz worked at the district attorney’s office nearly a decade later and has not been affiliated with the firm for many years.
Last month, Trump also signed a memo suspending security clearances for lawyers at Covington & Burling who represented Jack Smith, a former special counsel who obtained indictments against Trump in 2023 for allegedly retaining classified documents and seeking to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump called out “crooked law firms” and attorneys who participated in prosecutions against him during a speech at the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Friday, according to Law.com. Trump specifically mentioned Pomerantz and Smith, along with Pomerantz’s former boss, Alvin Bragg—the Manhattan district attorney—and Marc Elias, a lawyer who fought his challenge to losing the 2020 election.
“These are people that are bad people, really bad people,” Trump said in the speech, according to the New York Times. “They tried to turn America into a corrupt, communist and third-world country; but in the end, the thugs failed, and the truth won.”
The Washington Post and Law.com have additional coverage of the speech.
In the Friday executive order targeting Paul Weiss, Trump also said the firm discriminates against its employees “on the basis of race and other categories prohibited by civil rights laws.” He said his administration “is committed to ending such unlawful discrimination perpetrated in the name of ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ policies.”
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