President Donald Trump on Thursday stripped security clearances from a law firm linked to the 2016 election investigation into his ties to Russia.
‘This is an absolute honor to sign,’ said Trump as he put his signature on an Executive Order suspending clearance from staff at Perkins Coie.
‘What they’ve done is just terrible. It’s weaponization … you could say weaponization against a political opponent, and it should never be allowed to happen again.’
The order said the firm’s ‘dishonest and dangerous’ activities had affected the U.S. for decades.
And it said it ‘manufactured a false “dossier” designed to steal an election.
The firm has been a thorn in Trump’s side for years.
It is one of the major law outfits that have signed on to represent plaintiffs suing the Trump administration, just as it did during the president’s first term.
It was also linked to what Trump calls the ‘Russia hoax’ during the 2016 campaign, and was a key part of the effort to dig up dirt on the then candidate’s, including any secret ties to Moscow and what became known as the ‘Steele Dossier.’
The firm acted for Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic Party in contracting a research firm called Fusion GPS, which in turn hired a former MIF officer to investigate.
The deal was set up by Marc Elias, a partner at Perkins Coie and top lawyer for Clnton 2016. He has since left the firm and runs his own practice.
Christopher Steele’s dossier was packed with salacious claims.
It cited sources who said there was a ‘well-developed conspiracy of coordination’ between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, and that Russia had ‘kopromat’ including a tape of Trump with prostitutes.
It sparked a storm just before Trump was due to be inaugurated in January 2017.
However, its claims were never corroborated and it has become a byword among Trump’s supporters for the way the president was hounded through the courts by opponents.
The Fusion research was originally funded by Republicans opposed to Trump during the primaries, before Democrats took on the project after he won the nomination.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into links between Trump’s campaign and Moscow eventually concluded that Russia had tried to tilt the outcome of the 2016 election.
But it could not find evidence to prove that the two sides had illegally colluded.
The order said Perkins Coie’s role in the 2016 election was part of a pattern.
‘Perkins Coie has worked with activist donors including George Soros to judicially overturn popular, necessary, and democratically enacted election laws, including those requiring voter identification,’ it said.
This time around, Perkins Coie is representing plaintiffs suing the Trump administration over restrictions on transgender people in the military service.
Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who has taken on a central role in the administration, put law firms on notice last month.
He asked on X: ‘Which law firms are pushing these anti-democratic cases to impede the will of the people?’
On Thursday, Trump’s staff secretary introduced the executive order as journalists watched.
Will Scharf said it would tackle ‘lawfare.’
‘This executive order will suspend security clearances and access to certain federal resources for that law firm, and also launch a holistic review of unlawful [diversity, equity, and inclusion] practices at some of the nation’s largest law firms.’
The ‘Russia hoax’ is never far from Trump’s mind.
He brought it up last Friday as his Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky went off the rails.
‘Putin went through a hell of a lot with me,’ he said, raising his voice after being challenged on whether or not the Russian strongman could be trusted.
‘He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and “Russia, Russia, Russia” … ever hear of that deal?’
