They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind
I can’t decide which phrase is more appropriate.
Perkins Coie law firm stripped of all government contracts and security clearances.
That’s a direct link to the White House for Trump’s executive order of those actions to be taken against them.
The real complaint is that both firms, under Obama and Biden, had taken on the air of quasi-governmental law shops. Some of their lawyers held high-level security clearances without any need. Apparently, the US government maintained SCIFs at Perkins Coie offices, allowing easy access to highly classified intelligence. Some of their lawyers and staff held permanent passes permitting unescorted entry to some federal agencies. The orders do nothing to prevent either law firm from representing clients needing access to top secret information; they are just required to play by the same rules as every other law office in the country. Attorneys can get clearances on a case-by-case basis, they have to access top secret information in government SCIFs, and their attorneys can’t meander through federal buildings without an escort and appointment.
It should also be noted that nothing in those orders prevents anyone from engaging either firm for legal work, nor does it prevent anyone from associating with them. They’re just not going to be getting Federal government jobs and money.
Any sniveling you read from their defenders also needs to be set beside the concerted campaign by Democrats to disbar and socially disappear lawyers who worked for President Trump after the 2020 election of Joe Biden to contest election results in Georgia and Arizona:
[The Democrats] have tried to disbar more than 100 attorneys who agreed to work on election integrity cases following the 2020 presidential election. They’ve expanded that lawfare to attorneys across the nation who defend conservatives, including half of Republican attorneys general.
The Washington D.C. “white shoe” law firm, Perkins Coie, is the initial focus since they happily acted as the cutout between Hillary Clinton’s campaign and Steele, as money was funneled to him from her campaign for his “dossier”. As a result the security clearances of their employees are being reviewed, as they bloody well should be:
Top Democratic Party lawyer Marc Elias and his then-law firm, Perkins Coie, played a disgraceful part in the Russia collusion hoax. I am not sure why no one in the Hillary Clinton campaign, nor anyone at Perkins Coie, was criminally prosecuted as a result of that fraud, which included the filing of false documents with the FEC. Perhaps investigators concluded that no crime was committed, or perhaps a policy decision was made not to bring criminal charges.
Also cited is the fact that they were George Soros paid stormtroopers for knocking down voter ID laws across the nation to enable more people to vote facilitate fraudulent voting by the Democrat Party.
Another legal arm of the Democrat Party, the law firm Covington & Burling, got the same treatment – Suspension of Security Clearances and Evaluation of Government Contracts – in its case because of its very tight relationship with the former special counsel, Jack “Crazy Killer Eyes” Smith, who was the designated hit man who went after Trump over the J6 “Insurrection” and the classified papers stored at Trump’s home after he left the Presidency.
The latter trial had already blown up in Smith’s face because of his antics with the recovered documents, something that showed up in his history of prosecutions, such as when SCOTUS unanimously booted his successful conviction of another GOP politician, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. All Smith’s tricks were there: stretching the law until it screamed to get his man, evidence tampering, including witnesses, leaking to the MSM, etc.
The former was already going down the tubes before Trump was elected, as SCOTUS booted half the case on the grounds of Presidential immunity, leaving Smith with no time to reset, plus also the angle discussed, but not settled, by the Court about his appointment being illegal in the first place.
That’s the sort of lawfare that Covington & Burling got paid to participate in. Now they’re reaping the whirlwind.
Also this, where lawyer Bill Shipley noted (he’s also the blogger, “Shipwreckedcrew”), that he took on January 6 defendants pro bono because major law firms would not touch these cases, even though years ago they had fallen all over themselves as they scrambled to defend known terrorists against the evil machinations of GW Bush:
So fuck ’em!
There’s also one other aspect to these EO’s, it applies to every law firm in America and it’s all about racial discrimination:
The Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission shall review the practices of representative large, influential, or industry leading law firms for consistency with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, including whether large law firms: reserve certain positions, such as summer associate spots, for individuals of preferred races; promote individuals on a discriminatory basis; permit client access on a discriminatory basis; or provide access to events, trainings, or travel on a discriminatory basis.
As the Powerline lawyers explain:
I doubt that there is a single large law firm in America that has not engaged in race discrimination,…
Jeez, that’d fill you with confidence if you’re a White American law student.
… and other forms of illegal discrimination, always proudly. Here again, I have been puzzled for a long time as to why such blatantly illegal discrimination was allowed to persist.
How effective will the order be, as to discrimination? As in so many other instances, the administration is taking on a tough challenge. Law firms, like many other organizations, are ideologically committed to discrimination, especially race discrimination. Such practices may be driven underground, in the sense that law firms may stop bragging about them on their web sites. But will they actually stop? Doubtful.
So people have an objection to the Trump Administration trying to finally stop all that? The Left (and clearly some elements of the Right) have fallen a long way since the days of protesting against Apartheid.
No Minister 