US suspends security clearances for lawyers at WilmerHale, Jenner as they challenge Trump orders
The Trump administration has suspended security clearances for two lawyers at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr and one lawyer at Jenner & Block, law firms that sued after they were targeted in punitive executive orders. (Photo by Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA/Sipa via the Associated Press)
Updated: The Trump administration has suspended security clearances for two lawyers at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr and one lawyer at Jenner & Block, law firms that sued after they were targeted in punitive executive orders.
Lawyers representing the firms notified two federal judges overseeing the litigation about the pulled security clearances in court filings this week.
Law.com and Bloomberg Law have coverage of pulled security clearances at WilmerHale. Bloomberg Law has a separate story on the pulled security clearance at Jenner & Block.
President Donald Trump had criticized WilmerHale in a March 27 executive order for hiring former special counsel Robert Mueller, who led the investigation of possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. The March 25 executive order targeting Jenner & Block criticized the firm for hiring Mueller’s lead prosecutor.
The executive orders sought to suspend security clearances held by people at the firms, to possibly suspend government contracts held by their clients, and to limit access to government buildings by the firms’ personnel.
The two federal judges presiding in the firms’ challenges have temporarily blocked parts of the executive orders but not the provisions regarding security clearances.
The lawyer representing WilmerHale, former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, said in a May 13 court filing lawyers at the firm recently learned of the suspensions in letters from a government agency.
The development affecting WilmerHale “underscores that the executive branch stands ready and willing to implement the executive order absent judicial intervention,” Clement wrote in the filing, a letter to U.S District Judge Richard J. Leon of Washington, D.C., who is overseeing the case.
Leon did not grant WilmerHale’s request to block the government from pulling security clearances when he issued a temporary restraining order March 28. He did however, block the provisions related to access to government buildings and reassessment of clients’ government contracts.
If Leon grants an injunction blocking the executive order, Clement said in the letter, he should not only restrain future implementation of the order but also reverse actions already taken. More specifically, Clement said, he is asking that Leon nullify suspensions of WilmerHale security clearances, stop reviews of other security clearances, and cease other actions taken pursuant to the order.
A security clearance was also suspended for a lawyer at Jenner & Block, a lawyer representing the firm told a federal judge overseeing the firm’s legal challenge.
This development “further underscores the need for the permanent injunctive relief that Jenner has requested,” wrote the lawyer, Michael A. Attanasio, in a May 14 letter to U.S. District Judge John Bates of the District of Columbia.
The judge issued a March 28 TRO blocking the federal government from reassessing federal contracts held by Jenner & Block’s clients and restricting access to government buildings for Jenner & Block personnel. Jenner & Block did not seek to block the provision regarding security clearances in its TRO request.
WilmerHale and Jenner & Block are among four firms that sued over the executive orders. The others are Perkins Coie and Susman Godfrey.
Updated May 15 at 4:15 p.m. to add information about the pulled security clearance for a Jenner & Block lawyer.
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