President Trump's assault on the judiciary by attacking judges and even their families when their rulings don't go his way is well documented. But now as President, he's taking an even more aggressive approach, going after law firms that represent clients that the President doesn't like. The first to feel his wrath is a law firm which represents former Special Counsel Jack Smith. Smith, as you know, is now a private citizen, but as Special Counsel with the Department of Justice, he brought criminal charges against Trump in two cases. Smith is expecting to be the subject of a number of investigations by Republicans in Congress for which he'll need legal help. Now, in late February, the President signed a memo suspending the active security clearances of lawyers from a firm called Covington and Burling who represent Jack Smith.
Hold it. This is a good one. Is everybody listening? Deranged Jack Smith. We're going to call it the deranged Jack Smith signing or bill.
In some cases, when sensitive materials involved, attorneys need security clearances to adequately represent a client. For instance, Donald Trump's attorneys had security clearances working on the classified documents case against him in other cases as well. If Mr. Smith's attorneys can have access to sensitive documents, the question is, can he be adequately represented in national security matters by them? According to legal scholars, it could also violate the First Amendment's right to free speech, the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of due process, and the Sixth Amendment's right to effective assistance of counsel. It's not just one firm that's been targeted so far. Another firm, Perkins Coie, it's called, they've been targeted. They represented Hillary Clinton's campaign when she ran Trump, and they hired an opposition research firm, which ended up producing the now infamous Steal Dossier. Lawyers at Perkins Coie are currently working on a case challenging Trump's ban on trans service members, and the President has also attacked them for having internal diversity initiatives. Four days show that law firms security clearances were also suspended, and they've been banned from entering some federal buildings. The question left in the air, of course, is who's next? And that's a question the President likely wants law firms asking themselves.
These actions against two prominent firms certainly send a chilling message to other firms about taking on cases that President Trump might not like. Even if individual lawyers may be brave enough to incur the wrath of the most powerful man in the world, the other attorneys at their firm may not be. The other clients of these firms may cancel their business because they're afraid the President will then punish their companies just by using one of these law firms. That, it seems, is not an accidental byproduct to the President's actions. It sounds like that's the point. Yesterday in an interview on Fox Business, the President threatened more firms will be targeted.
President Trump is going after law firms representing his opponents. Anderson Cooper has the details. #cnn #news.