A former partner at the firm aided Robert Mueller’s investigations
President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting the law firm of Jenner and Block over the role of a former partner at the firm who aided onetime special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigations.
Trump signed the order at a White House event on Tuesday, the latest in a series of measures going after prominent law firms over work they did tied to the myriad investigations and prosecutions that the president faced during his first term in office and after.
The order calls on federal agencies to take steps to “suspend any active security clearances held by individuals at Jenner pending a review of whether such clearances are consistent with the national interest.”
It also directs the Office of Management and Budget to identify and halt any government “goods, property, material and services” provided for Jenner’s benefit. And it calls on government agencies to require contractors to disclose any business they do with the law firm and for agency heads to terminate any contract “for which Jenner has been hired to perform any service.”
As he signed the order Trump singled out a former partner, Andrew Weissmann, who was a top deputy of Mueller in his probe into alleged 2016 Russian election interference, calling him “the main culprit” and a “bad guy.”
Weissmann, on Mueller’s team, led the prosecution against Paul Manafort, a former campaign chair for Trump’s first presidential run.
The order also directs agency heads to limit government workers in their official capacity from engaging with Jenner employees, as well as Weissmann.
Trump in his second term has also issued directives against Covington & Burling, revoking security clearances for lawyers who worked with special counsel Jack Smith, and against Perkins Coie, which has sued the Trump administration over the president’s actions.
Paul Weiss, another law firm targeted by the White House, reached an agreement with Trump that saw him withdraw an order stripping them of their security clearances. Paul Weiss agreed to not use diversity and inclusion considerations in its hiring practices and to donate $40 million in pro bono legal services to initiatives supported by the administration.
Weissmann was also on a list of individuals who had their security clearances revoked by Trump earlier this month, including former President Joe Biden and members of the last Democratic administration.
Copyright Bloomberg News
