President Trump has continued his assault in opposition to distinguished legislation corporations, pulling the safety clearances of attorneys at New York-based Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP (Paul Weiss), and proscribing their staff from getting into authorities buildings and receiving funds from federal contracts.
Trump signed the order on Friday, directing that the safety clearances of Paul Weiss staff be pulled “pending a review of whether such clearances are consistent with the national interest,” terminate any contract for which the legislation agency was employed to carry out “any service” and restrict authorities staff from participating with the agency’s staff whereas in official capability.
He additionally ordered that company officers ought to “refrain” from hiring Paui Weiss’s staff “absent a waiver from the head of the agency.”
“My Administration has already taken action to address some of the significant risks and egregious conduct associated with law firms, and I have determined that similar action is necessary to end Government sponsorship of harmful activity by an additional law firm: Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP (Paul Weiss),” Trump mentioned within the order.
Trump went after election lawyer Marc Elias, who labored in opposition to Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and former Paul Weiss’s companion Mark Pomerantz throughout his Friday speech on the Justice Division (DOJ)
“Now, as the chief law enforcement officer in our country, I will insist upon and demand full and complete accountability for the wrongs and abuses that have occurred,” Trump mentioned through the tackle.
Whereas working on the Manhattan District Lawyer’s Workplace, Pomerantz was engaged within the workplace’s hush cash probe into Trump. The jury discovered Trump, then a presidential candidate, responsible, however he has denied wrongdoing.
Paul Weiss’s spokesperson Laura Van Drie instructed The Hill in a press release that Pomerantz retired from the agency in 2012 and “went on to work at the District Attorney’s office nearly a decade later.”
“Mr. Pomerantz has not been affiliated with the firm for years,” Van Drie mentioned. “The terms of a similar order were enjoined as unconstitutional earlier this week by a federal district court judge.”
Van Drie referred to U.S. District Decide Beryl Howell quickly blocking elements of Trump’s govt order on Wednesday that sought to forestall Perkins Coie personnel from getting into federal authorities buildings and forcing contractors to disclose in the event that they interact in enterprise with the agency.
Earlier this month, Trump signed an govt order seeking to strip Perkins Coie staff, who did work for Democrats through the 2016 marketing campaign, of safety clearances and reviewing the federal government’s contracts with the legislation agency.
Trump’s Friday order in opposition to Paul Weiss was the third time he has gone after a legislation agency since taking workplace, once more, in January. Late final month, he suspended clearances for Covington & Burling of a lot of exterior attorneys which can be offering professional bono service to former particular counsel Jack Smith.
