Donald Trump is yanking security clearances for law firms who have committed the terrible crime of working with people Donald Trump doesn’t like. That won’t just punish those firms—it will also likely make it harder for some of the federal employees illegally fired by Trump to get lawyers.
Federal employees who work with sensitive information or whose employment is covert can’t hire just any lawyer. Here’s how Mark Zaid, who represented the intelligence officer who blew the whistle on Trump’s “perfect call” to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, explained it.
For a covert CIA officer, even the fact they work for the CIA is secret, and it would be a crime for them to tell someone who doesn’t have proper clearance. If that CIA officer needs an attorney, the attorney needs a security clearance too.
This isn’t just an issue for spies. Any federal employee who works with classified material can encounter this if an employment dispute requires discussing that material. Without an attorney who has clearance, that person is out of luck.
Zaid was among the first attorneys to be stripped of their security clearances for the crime of irritating Trump. Well … maybe. In early February, Trump told the New York Post he was revoking clearances for a laundry list of people, including Zaid. However, there’s been no official notification about it, even a month later.
On Feb. 25, Trump issued an order suspending clearances for anyone at Covington & Burling who provided services to former special counsel Jack Smith. The man charged with investigating Trump’s election interference and mishandling of classified documents received about $140,000 in pro bono assistance from the prominent Washington law firm in preparation for Trump’s inevitable legal attacks on him. There’s no allegation the firm did anything improper regarding clearances or classified information. Their only offense was working with Smith.
A new order dropped on Thursday suspending clearances for everyone at another law firm, Perkins Coie. Trump has been mad at that firm since 2016 for its role in hiring the firm that commissioned the Steele dossier, an opposition research report that was largely debunked. The order also limits the firm’s access to federal buildings and, for good measure, accuses the firm of discrimination in hiring because it uses diversity, equity, and inclusion practices—the GOP bogeyman known as DEI.
As of 2019, the last year for which data is available, 1.25 million federal employees, contractors, and others held top-secret clearances. The mass firings driven by Trump’s co-President Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency have been so chaotic that people are not even receiving the customary security exit briefings. Still, the administration is nonetheless moving forward with plans to ax probationary CIA employees after purging the FBI weeks ago. Thanks to Trump, those fired people will face a dwindling pool of lawyers allowed to represent them.
Making sure federal employees can’t fight back
In the span of just a few days in February, Trump removed Susan Grundmann, chair of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, which oversees federal-sector labor issues; Cathy Harris, head of the Merit Systems Protection Board, which shields federal employees from partisan actions and hears appeals over firings and demotions; and Hampton Dellinger, head of the Office of Special Counsel, which protects federal whistleblowers.
Each is an independent federal agency, where people are appointed to fixed terms rather than serving at the president’s pleasure like Cabinet heads do. They can’t be removed except for the reasons specified by Congress in statute, like neglect of duty or malfeasance. Trump removed them anyway, in part because he’s deliberately trying to tee up a Supreme Court case where the conservative justices would agree that he has absolute authority over the entire executive branch, but also because he’s cutting off avenues of recourse for fired federal employees.
Grundmann sued over her removal, but the court has not yet ruled on her motion to be restored to her position. Harris just prevailed at the lower court, with the judge ruling that Trump had no authority to remove her, but the administration has already appealed. Dellinger won at the lower court, but after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals granted Trump’s request that Dellinger remain removed while litigation continues, Dellinger dropped his challenge to his firing.
Federal employees can’t meaningfully rely on the functionality or independence of these agencies now, which is the whole point. On any given day, there may or may not be someone heading an agency, depending on where litigation stands, which is a surefire way to grind work to an internal halt. Worse, if Trump prevails in his attempt to stuff these agencies with partisan ghouls, none will care about their duties to federal employees.
Ed Martin is unclear on the First Amendment
When interim D.C. U.S. Attorney Ed Martin isn’t protecting a MAGA congressman from being arrested or threatening Democrats on behalf of Elon Musk, he’s busy showing how little he understands the Constitution.
On Thursday, Martin sent a letter to William Treanor, dean of Georgetown University’s law school, complaining that the school “continues to teach and promote DEI” and that doing so is “unacceptable” (there’s that DEI bogeyman again!). Martin said he has opened an inquiry and that his office will not hire anyone from a school that continues to teach DEI.
It’s unclear where Martin got the idea that a federal prosecutor has any role here. What crime, exactly, would Martin charge Georgetown with? It’s also unclear whether Martin understands the First Amendment, which solidly prohibits the government from telling Georgetown, a private school, what to teach.
Treanor, who (unlike Martin) is an actual constitutional scholar, sent a return letter patiently explaining basic legal concepts like academic freedom and private schools. Treanor also told Martin that since the First Amendment protects Georgetown’s right to determine its curriculum, refusing to hire students based on disdain for that curriculum is also unconstitutional.
For good measure, Treanor highlighted that Georgetown’s commitment to open discourse stems from its status as a Catholic and Jesuit institution. This might seem unnecessary until you learn that Martin is an ostentatiously devout Catholic whose official bio highlights that he attended a Catholic college and worked for the St. Louis Archdiocese.
If Martin were smarter, he’d be chastened—but he’s not, so he won’t.
A shining new era of grift
Republicans are racing to create a world where Elon Musk doesn’t have to follow any pesky regulations. On Wednesday, the GOP-controlled Senate passed a resolution that would undo a Biden-era rule that gave the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau the authority to regulate online payment platforms. The House also needs to pass the resolution, but since that chamber is also under GOP control, the rule’s demise seems likely.
The CFPB enforces consumer financial laws, protecting people from fraud and unfair practices. It’s remarkably good at this, having obtained close to $20 billion in relief for consumers since its founding in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The agency has always had the authority to oversee traditional financial institutions like banks, but only under Biden did it expand to digital payment platforms such as Zelle and CashApp.
This poses a problem for Musk, who wants to turn X into a digital payment platform and already has an agreement with Visa. Musk isn’t a fan of regulation, and this move would allow him to run a financial institution without any annoying oversight. There’s no telling whether there’s a huge appetite for an unregulated digital payment app on a site already overrun by Nazis and crypto bots, but we’re about to find out.