President Donald Trump issued an executive order on March 6 suspending any government work being done by the law firm of Perkins Coie and its contractors. He barred the firm’s employees from entering federal buildings, revoked its security clearances, and ordered an investigation into the firm’s reverse discrimination policies. Ouch.
To no one’s surprise, a handy federal judge offered a lifeline this past week to the law firm that cooked up part of the Russian collusion hoax for Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, a Barack Obama appointee, issued a temporary restraining order after the firm argued in a DC federal court that it had lost clients over Mr. Trump’s action.
The judge didn’t reverse the security clearance ban or the anti-DEI portion. But suspending the firm’s government work was enough to touch off mega hand wringing in Washington, which is undergoing scrutiny from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Mr. Trump’s executive order stated in part: “The dishonest and dangerous activity of the law firm Perkins Coie LLP (“Perkins Coie”) has affected this country for decades. Notably, in 2016 while representing failed Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Perkins Coie hired Fusion GPS, which then manufactured a false ‘dossier’ designed to steal an election.”
This was in reference to the now-discredited Steele dossier commissioned by Perkins Coie’s then-partner Marc E. Elias to smear Mr. Trump with salacious allegations. It was right in line with an earlier false charge that Mr. Trump’s campaign colluded with a Russian bank.
The media bought all this hook, line, and sinker, and ran with it right through and beyond the 2020 election cycle.
The executive order also noted that Perkins Coie worked all over the country with billionaire financier George Soros to get rid of voter ID laws and other election integrity safeguards.
This is well documented. In fact, the leftist lawyers seem rather proud of making it easier to commit vote fraud, recasting it as “saving democracy.”
This doesn’t sound to me like a law firm that has the public’s best interests at heart and perhaps should not be trusted with government work and government secrets.
Dane Butswinkas, an attorney representing Perkins Coie, said the law firm’s 15 biggest clients, which account for 25% of its revenue, all hold government contracts, according to the Washington Post. “This executive order takes a wrecking ball to the rule of law,” he exclaimed.
No, it doesn’t. It’s about restoring the rule of law.
White House spokesman Harrison Fields put it in perspective, telling Fox News: “It is absurd that a billion-dollar law firm is suing to retain its access to government perks and handouts."
Judge Howell said the executive order seemed purely retaliatory on Mr. Trump’s part.
How about looking at it as a long-overdue measure of justice toward those who abused the legal system for political reasons?
"I am sure many in the legal profession are watching in horror about what Perkins Coie is going through here," the judge said. “It sends little chills down my spine.”
There is no evidence of which I am aware that this judge experienced similar chills when Democrats went after Mr. Trump in four jurisdictions with bogus charges, tried to remove him from two state ballots, and impeached him twice.
At a time when House Democrats, led by Rep. Adam Schiff of California (now a U.S. senator) were busy pushing the Russian collusion hoax, Judge Howell made a crucial ruling that sided with the Democrat-run committee against the Trump Justice Department.
In November 2023, Howell received an award from the leftist Women’s White Collar Defense Association. In her speech, she lamented “the big lies” that spurred the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, citing historian Heather Cox Richardson’s book Democracy Awakening, which says America is on the brink of “fascism” thanks to “Christian nationalism,” racism, and corporations.
Rep. Elise Stefanik New York Republican and President Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, filed an ethics complaint last August against Judge Howell with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
Last month, Mr. Trump issued a less-sweeping executive order against the law firm Covington & Burling, which represents Jack Smith. He’s the former special counsel who filed now-moot criminal charges in two cases against Mr. Trump.
The president also revoked the security clearances of the 51 national security experts who signed a letter that seriously misled the public just before the 2020 election. The letter falsely stated that the true story of Hunter Biden’s damning laptop “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
Three days later, President Joe Biden cited the letter to lie to the nation during his televised debate with Mr. Trump.
Halting abuses of power is a welcome relief after the 12 years of the Obama/Biden regime’s lawfare, but some of the perps should face more consequences. Helping to rig an election is a crime against America.
As for the Perkins Coie executive order, Mr. Butswinkas told the judge that it was “like a tsunami waiting to hit the firm. It truly is life-threatening.” He predicted that “It will spell the end of the law firm.”
No, it probably won’t – but if it does, it would be a victory for justice and election integrity.
This article appeared originally here.
Notice: This column is printed with permission. Opinion pieces published by AFN.net are the sole responsibility of the article's author(s), or of the person(s) or organization(s) quoted therein, and do not necessarily represent those of the staff or management of, or advertisers who support the American Family News Network, AFN.net, our parent organization or its other affiliates.
