A federal judge in Washington, D.C. temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting a law firm that represented clients who were antagonistic to the president.
The executive order claims “The dishonest and dangerous activity of the law firm Perkins Coie LLP … 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 egregious activity is 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. In one such case, a court was forced to sanction Perkins Coie attorneys for an unethical lack of candor before the court.
U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell argued that Trump used “extraordinary power” and that the law firm suffered damages from the executive order, according to The Washington Post.
The judge granted the firm a temporary restraining order, which would prevent some of the punishments from going into effect, and said she will hold an additional hearing before issuing a full ruling on the matter.
The executive order bans federal agencies from hiring Perkins Coie or from working with contractors who use the firm’s services. It bars Perkins Coie employees from entering federal buildings while suspending their security clearances.
The judge noted that Trump’s order could cow other law firms from taking on cases or clients that might go against the president’s interests. She further pointed out that the order seemed to violate the law firm’s First Amendment rights and was done without due process, The Post reported.
Howell further argued that Trump’s order “may be amusing in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ where the Queen of Hearts yells, ‘Off with their heads!’ at annoying subjects … and announces a sentence before a verdict,” but that “this cannot be the reality we are living under,” according to Politico.
The judge’s order is temporary and will remain in place as the case is being litigated in court.
Howell publicly criticized President Trump in the past. During a speech in front of the Women’s White Collar Defense Association. “We’re having a very surprising and downright troubling moment in this country when the very importance of fats is dismissed or ignored,” she said.
She quoted a book called “Democracy Awakening” in which the author asserts that “burying facts with false history telling is one of the keys to the rise of authoritarianism, as she bluntly puts it: Big Lies,” referring to Trump contesting the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
“My D.C. judicial colleagues and I regularly see the impact of big lies at the sentencing of hundreds, hundreds of individuals who have been convicted for offenses, conduct on January 6, 2021, when they disrupted the certification of the 2020 presidential election at the US Capitol,” she added.
The federal Judge who blocked President Trump from firing bureaucrats and stripping Perkins Coie’s security clearances is on tape going on a crazy tirade against Trump.
— Natalie Winters (@nataliegwinters) March 14, 2025
She melts down about the rise of “authoritarianism” and the “big lie.” pic.twitter.com/VPMgDQa71D
Trump’s executive order does not seem to be the best of ideas, from where I sit. Yes, the firm did contribute to the spread of the Russia collusion hoax. But it did so while compiling opposition research on Trump – a practice several other law firms done during political campaigns.
Specifically targeting this law firm only lends credibility to leftist accusations that Trump is weaponizing the government against his political enemies. Yes, they have no leg to stand on given how President Joe Biden did worse – but the fact remains that this executive order is a bad look. It could also empower future Democratic administrations to do the same against law firms or other entities that align with conservatives or Republicans.
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