Judge stops Trump order barring law firm behind Steele dossier from entering government buildings

A federal judge halted the Trump administration Wednesday from enforcing key provisions of an executive order that targeted powerhouse Democratic law firm Perkins Coie, which played an important role in crafting the so-called Steele dossier.

US District Judge Beryl Howell granted the firm’s request for a temporary restraining order against President Trump’s bar on its lawyers from entering government buildings or engaging with federal agencies.

Howell, an Obama-appointed judge, concluded that the “retaliatory animus” of the order was “clear on its face” and suggested that it violated constitutional protections against viewpoint-based discrimination.

Last week, President Trump signed an order that yanked security clearances from the Seattle-based law firm and pushed for canning Perkins Coie’s contracts with federal clients. He blasted Perkins Coie as “dishonest and dangerous.”

Perkins Coie, which has about 1,200 lawyers on staff, promptly fired back with a lawsuit on Tuesday, accusing the president of mounting a politically motivated vendetta against it. The firm’s suit did not challenge the security clearance revocation.

During the 2016 election cycle, Perkins Coie paid Fusion GPS to engage in opposition research against Trump on behalf of the Clinton campaign.

The Steele dossier, which was compiled by ex-British spy Christopher Steele, unfurled scathing and many unproven accusations of ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

While subsequent assessments, such as the Mueller report, agreed with the conclusion that Russia wanted Trump to win in 2016, many key details of the dossier have been discredited.

An inspector general report later concluded that “the FBI was not able to corroborate a single substantive allegation contained in the Steele Reports.”

One of the most outlandish accusations in the now-debunked Steele dossier suggested that Russian intelligence had acquired salacious videotapes involving Trump during his 2013 stay at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Moscow.

Attorneys for Perkins Coie decried Trump’s executive order as “life-threatening” and something that “will spell the end of the law firm.” They noted that about 25% of the company’s revenue comes from work with government clients.

“The Order imposes these punishments as retaliation for the firm’s association with, and representation of, clients that the President perceives as his political opponents,” they wrote in a complaint filed Tuesday.

Attorney General Pam Bondi’s chief of staff Chad Mizelle argued on behalf of the Trump administration Wednesday, a rare move for someone in his position.

Mizelle contended that Trump enjoys broad powers “under the Constitution to find certain individuals and certain companies are not trustworthy with the nation’s secrets.”

“What they’re complaining about is a series of bogeymen,” Mizelle argued, downplaying Perkins Coie’s concerns during arguments Wednesday, per Politico. “None of those ghosts are real. The bogeymen are not real.”

Prior to issuing the temporary restraining order, Howell expressed deep concerns about the ramifications of the potential precedent set by Trump’s executive order.

“I am sure that many in the legal profession are watching in horror at what Perkins Coie is going through here,” the judge said during a hearing, according to Politico. “The order casts a chilling harm of blizzard proportions across the legal profession.”

Since roaring back into the Oval Office in January, Trump has flexed his executive power to yank security clearances and for a deluge of former officials such as former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, former President Joe Biden, former National Security Adviser John Bolton and more.

Trump slammed Perkins Coie in his executive order, arguing that the Steele dossier it commissioned was “designed to steal an election.”

Perkins Coie raked in close to $10 million from both the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 cycle.

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Stephen Collopy

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