By Kanishka Singh, Mike Scarcella and Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday suspending security clearances held by people at New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
“Today, President Donald J.
Trump signed an Executive Order to suspend security clearances held by individuals at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP (Paul Weiss) pending a review of whether such clearances are consistent with the national interest,” the White House said.
The law firm has ties to high profile Democrats whom Trump has criticized over probes into him and his conduct.
It had no immediate comment on Friday.
Some people associated with a probe by special counsel Robert Mueller into Trump’s ties to Russia during his first term are linked to the firm. That probe found no collusion between Trump and Russia during the 2016 election campaign.
Trump’s order on Friday marked the third time he has taken action against a major U.S.
law firm, alarming lawyers and legal experts.
Trump has been critical of a former partner at the firm, Mark Pomerantz, who was involved in the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into Trump’s hush money payments to a porn star.
A jury had found Trump guilty. Trump denied wrongdoing.
In a statement late on Friday, the law firm noted that Pomerantz retired from the firm 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 many years. The terms of a similar order were enjoined as unconstitutional earlier this week by a federal district court judge,” the law firm said on Friday in response to Trump’s order.
U.S.
District Judge Beryl Howell on March 12 temporarily blocked most of an executive order Trump issued against a separate law firm, Perkins Coie, finding it likely violated the U.S. Constitution.
Trump in another order last month revoked security clearances for two Covington & Burling lawyers who advised Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed during Democratic former President Joe Biden’s administration who brought criminal charges against Trump.
Covington defended its work for Smith but has not challenged the order in court.
Covington and Perkins Coie are among more than a dozen prominent law firms that have filed cases against the Trump administration over policies on immigration, transgender rights and government mass firings.
The Paul Weiss firm had not yet appeared in any litigation.
Paul Weiss is home to former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch from the administration of Democratic former President Barack Obama.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh, Mike Scarcella, Jasper Ward and Andrew Goudsward in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler and Cynthia Osterman)
